Stomping the Roses
by Acquainted-With-the-Night
Summary: An anthology of fluff, mild angst and drabbles centering around Zero and Yuki's early years together. Please review; no flames. K , all ages welcome to read.
1. The Boy Who Fell to Pieces

_I suppose that, if I have time for two ongoing stories, I should be working on "Sweet Dream or Beautiful Nightmare?". But...I'm at a loss with that one. I mean, I promise that I will continue it, but...it may take a while. In the meantime, for the Zeki fans, I have begun an anthology about Zero and Yuki's early years together. It is a collection of interconnected fluff and drabbles focusing on the early years of Zero and Yuki's relationship, so bascially everthing prior to their years at Cross Academy. Yes, the title was taken from a David Archuleta song...yes, I am a dork. But I thought that the song reflected their youth well, especially Zero's. Plus roses are a prevelant image in the series. That being said, the following is a tad angsty, but it's also an exploration on how Zero felt when he first met Yuki. Fluff comes next, when I get around to posting the next short story. Some of the stories will be based off of flashbacks and bonus chapters in the manga, and others will be original stories of my own design. I'm aware that I'm not the first to write something along these lines, but I hope that you enjoy it anyways! Happy readings. _

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Vampire Knight. This anthology of fluff and drabbles is purely for entertainment and purely fanmade. _

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**The Boy Who Fell to Pieces**

_**Present day~**_

Zero Kiryu's long, strangely elegant fingers paged through the old leather photo album, their graceful movements incongruous with their usual actions-taking the lives of his enemies, the vampires. Those beasts in human form.

However, tonight was not a time for such dark thoughts and musings. Tonight…this night he meant to relive one of his dearest memories. Namely, the night he had first been gifted with the light of the sun.

A pair of chocolate brown eyes smiled up at him from the page.

He settled back into his wing-backed arm chair, the leather creaking, hand resting on the protective plastic that sealed the page he was on, shut his eyes, and remembered…

_**Four years ago, a winter's night~**_

The trench coat that Cross had draped across Zero's bony shoulders was a heavy, warm weight, a weight that should have felt protective, given what Zero had just gone through, but instead rang with the sensation of being oppressive.

As Zero slid out of the low-slung antique car, the warm air from the heating vent met the cold air outside and created a steam that melded with Zero's puffs of breath. He felt his face go numb with the sudden assault of temperature change, but it was nothing compared to how he felt on the inside.

Not horrified. Not scared or traumatized or disillusioned. Zero Kiryu, just recently aged twelve years, was completely and totally numb on the inside. He was a rose that wasn't merely touched by the frost, filigreed with ice on the edges; rather, he was a rose that had been frost-bitten down to its very core, frozen inside and out.

Zero was fully aware that his face was a meld of blankness and a cold sort of hatred, the only emotion that he had left in his arsenal. As the warm, kind hands of Cross descended onto the ridges of his shoulders, Zero fought the urge to jerk away. He doubted that he would ever get used to the touch of another person ever again.

Even though what had done this to him, to his family, could hardly be counted as a person. More like a monster that had taken on the pretense of human shape, a mask that had been ripped away like so much wet silk when those maws had clamped down on Zero's throat.

The wound had healed, but it still itched and throbbed. Zero felt every pulsing itch as Cross steered him gently by the shoulders to a small, elegant house. Zero would have shivered at the cold wind that blasted him from all sides, but his numbness was his savior in this case.

He was too cold for the wind to compete.

As they neared the front side of the house, the door creaked open, and light spilled out, a hallow that glowed around a small, slight silhouette.

The small, high, wind-chime voice reached Zero's ears before the sight of the person did.

"Headmaster…?" The small voice trailed off questioningly.

Zero had gone numb on the inside, had been numb since the members of the Hunter's Guild had found him sprawled out and wounded in his home, but the sight of this young girl struck a strange chord on one of his numbed-out heart strings. It wasn't anything that Zero recognized. It wasn't love, or even liking, but rather a certain…awe.

There was nothing special about the girl, not openly, anyway. She was perhaps his age, maybe a bit younger, and about an inch shorter than he was. But he'd always been on the small side, in spite of his wiry toughness. Her slim, childish figure was encased in a baggy white turtle neck, a short pleated skirt, and loose knee socks. Chocolate hair streamed in straight waves to her waist, and eyes that were nearly the exact same color stared out of a passably pretty face with open curiosity. Her feet were braced slightly apart, one tiny hand resting on the door jamb, as if to brace the door open.

Zero's expression remained passive, but something inside of him was reacting in a way that it never had before.

He gripped the edges of the trench coat tighter.

"Yuki, this Zero Kiryu," Cross said in a voice that was so warm, his fatherly love for the little girl was quite obvious, in spite of his grave tone, "his family was attacked by a bad vampire. He'll be staying with us from now on."

A "bad" vampire? If he'd had laughter left inside of him, Zero would have barked out loud in disdainful, black humor. All vampires were "bad". The only good leech was a dead leech. Somewhat tolerant of the species before now, Zero had come to realize that they were all monsters.

"Help him clean up, Yuki," Cross instructed. "As you can clearly see, he's covered in blood." Oh. The blood must have been splattered across Zero's face where the trench coat didn't hide his skin. "I need to go to the police." With a small wave of his hand, Cross exited, shutting the winter night outside as he closed the front door behind him.

"Um," the young girl, Yuki, was clearly at a momentary loss for what she should do. But resolve took up camp on her features, her gentle eyes shining at Zero, curiosity replaced by concern. "May I…" She took a tentative step forward. "…may I touch you?"

Zero made no reply, although his insides were screaming, "Get away from me, don't touch me, don't!" Apparently taking his silence as assent, the young girl took up a position just behind and to the left of Zero, hands falling into place on his shoulders.

"This way," she instructed softly, steering him down the hallway of this warm, dim place much as Cross had steered him through the cold, blind night.

Zero was too occupied with being dumbstruck to take in his new surroundings. Instead of feeling disgusted and fearful at this girl's touch, he felt a strange…familiarity, a sort of belonging and calm that made no sense whatsoever. He was yet numb on the inside, true, but a new feeling was taking up space slowly, inexorably, competing for room with the ice sculpture in Zero's narrow chest.

Inside the bathroom, Yuki Cross faced him and asked gently, "May I remove your coat?"

He didn't answer, only stared at her. She slid the coat to the ground, and it landed with a muffled thump as it gave in to gravity. She flinched at the blood that was splattered across Zero's neck, face, and upper chest like morbid paint. But relief shone in those eyes of her when she noticed the lack of wounds. Her chest seemed to expand on a breath.

Padding over to the tub, she dipped a small hand towel into the steaming water and rung it out. Returning to the still-as-a-statue Zero, she asked, once more, "May I touch you?"

He didn't answer, but the cries of, "No, don't touch me," had given way to soft murmurs of, "Please, please touch me."

Zero could scarcely understand it. His silence was no longer born of hatred, but rather of shock. What was with this girl, with her kind eyes, her gentle hands that stroked the towel over Zero's skin, cleansing him?

Zero remained in his shocked state even as Yuki Cross helped him prepare for bed, changing him into a fresh set of pajamas that had been borrowed from her own drawers-thank god they were unisex-as if he were a small child. She even went so far as to draw the covers of his new bed down and tuck him in.

A seed of irritation took root, another emotion that he had never expected to feel again, along with surprise and a tentative, young sort of…trust?

Couldn't be.

Zero's body adjusted to the contours of this new mattress, a mattress that would be his for the foreseeable future. How could he ever sleep in a strange bed, in a strange dark room? How could he…

Yuki Cross, who hadn't left in spite of the strong go-away waves that were radiating from Zero's small, prone body, had scooted her little behind into a chair, dragged it to his bedside, and was now stroking his hair.

Her lips were tilted upwards in an angelic smile, her passably pretty face transforming to youthful beauty. Her chocolate eyes were brimming with infinite tenderness, her hand gentler than even Zero's mother' s touch had been.

A vampire huntress never had much time for her children and the little niceties of caring for them, even if she loved them dearly.

"It's okay, Zero-kun," Yuki Cross cooed, her hand stroking Zero's hair to the side in a soothing rhythm that kept tempo with her tiny voice, "I'm here. You're safe."

Zero glared up at her, both resenting this uninvited touch and yet starving for more. Unshaken by his animosity, Yuki Cross continued to pet him as if he were a feral kitten, gentle and persuasive. She hummed beneath her breath.

Against both his will and better judgment, Zero's eyes went heavy, and he began to dose, all sensations save for the gentle stroking of his hair fading. His world narrowed down to the gentle hand and sweet humming of Yuki Cross. Zero Kiryu fell into the warm, drowsy arms of sleep, and the ice sculpture that sealed his heart began to crack and fall to pieces.

**The Boy Who Fell to Pieces/End**

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_The next story will be entitled "Princess or Angel? Zero Discovers A New Emotion", and will be out soon. I forgot to mention, but while these stories are interconnected stand-alones, they will take place in a chronological order, progressing from this incident to right before Zero and Yuki enter the Academy. Please review, and thanks for reading, _

_~Night_


	2. Angel Or Princess? Zero Discovers

**Angel Or Princess? Zero Discovers a New Emotion**

It had been about three weeks since Zero had arrived at Kaien Cross' household, and he had yet to make so much as a peep besides, "Yes", "No," and "Leave me alone." The latter was oft times the most prevalent of Zero's responses. Usually with an epithet or two sprinkled about the sentence.

As Zero slammed the door of his bedroom in Yuki's face for the umpteenth time, she wondered why she bothered with this frustrating, grumpy boy. He spurned her attempts at friendship and dismissed her overtures of camaraderie. She had thought, upon his arrival, that they could find a sort of solidarity.

After all, they were both orphans.

Going by the number of times Zero had given her the cold shoulder and the infinitely greater amount of times he'd pulled the slam-bam-go-away deal, Zero clearly did not feel the same way.

"Zero-kun," Yuki called in vain, tapping persistently at his door. "Headmaster Cross has prepared dinner. You ought to eat, more, Zero-kun."

She was greeted by oppressive silence accompanied by the background music of chirping creatures.

Sighing a years worth of sighs, Yuki turned from the door to Zero's room, which consequently was directly down the hall from hers, Yuki padded in the direction of the kitchen to give her adoptive father the sad but predictable news that Zero wouldn't be joining them for their evening meal.

Yuki's head fell forward slightly, tracking the shuffling of her stocking-clad feet, her long trail of hair sliding down across her shoulders. For the most part, she honestly didn't understand why she herself put up with Zero Kiryu's evident social handicaps and undisguised misanthropy. Trailing a hand along the smooth, white washed walls of the corridor, Yuki contemplated, steps slowing.

The answer came swiftly, of course. She tolerated, even disregarded, Zero's rude actions because she had seen the abject misery in his eyes the night they had met, a misery that was barely disguised by the veneer of ice that he'd erected around himself. Yuki was too soft-hearted to turn from a person who was suffering so, especially, for some reason, this boy.

Her footsteps ceased entirely, and her cheeks flushed softly as she thought of another reason why she couldn't turn from Zero Kiryu. She found that she was beginning to have feelings similar to that of an elder sister for Zero, in spite of the fact that he was a year older than her, or so the Headmaster had stated. Granted, Zero would probably growl and snarl at her if she had dared to state that she thought of him in such a light. The moonlight-haired boy had made it abundantly clear that he wanted nothing to do with her, although she'd noticed that he was more likely to speak to her than to the Headmaster, even if it was a rebuff.

What's more…her flush deepened, and she giggled softly to herself. Moreover, she would never admit it aloud, and least not to Zero, but she found her new foster sibling rather…cute. He became so ruffled so easily, and if it weren't for his animosity, she would have said that he was on the shy side. And he had the prettiest eyes that Yuki had ever had the privilege of seeing, wide and lushly lashed, and such an extraordinary lilac and silver color.

Zero Kiryu was a very…_pretty _boy. Prettier, even, than Kaname-sama.

Yuki shook her head at the last thought, calling herself all sorts of stupid. No one was more attractive to her than Kaname Kuran-sama, and things would remain that way. She fisted her hand, resolving not to allow Zero Kiryu to take Kaname-sama's first place position in her heart.

But…she brought her fisted her hand up to curl it up against her chest. For a reason that she could not fathom, a source that she could not place, Zero made her heart ache. Her heart ached for him, in a completely different way than it did for Kaname-sama. Yuki wasn't quite certain as to why, but she had the persistent feeling that Zero Kiryu would become very important to her.

In a way, he already was.

A sort of resolve hardening into place, Yuki twirled on her heel and stomped back down the hall to Zero's room. A concentrated frown marred her pretty feature, and the frown had coalesced into a full-on glower when she gripped the knob and swung the door to Zero's room wide open.

And froze as her swiftly widening eyes took in the scene before her: Zero, curled up in the corner of his dark cave of a room, legs curled up to his skinny chest, one of his pale ivory hands dragging deep, bloody furrows into the delicate skin of his neck.

"Zero…kun?" Yuki breathed, eyes wide in horror even as she stood stock still in a daze. "What are you…doing?"

"The wound that woman made is throbbing," Zero spoke coolly, the longest sentence that he'd ever spoken to her, or Headmaster Cross even. "It feels icky."

"No," Yuki whispered, watching distantly as Zero's slim fingers dug deeper furrows into his own skin, blood caught under his fingernails, pouring in shallow rivulets down his skin and staining the collar of his burgundy jersey-necked shirt. "No, stop…"

_That woman. _The one who had taken Zero's family away from him, who had nearly taken Zero's life as well.

Who had, in a way, already taken Zero's life from him.

But…Yuki would give his life back to him. She _had _to. She barely knew him, and yet couldn't stand his suffering.

"No! Zero-kun!"

Surging forward, Yuki went to her knees and scrambled over to Zero, feeling carpet burn rasp at her through her pants. With more strength than she had known herself to possess, Yuki manacled a hand around Zero's wrist and wrenched the appendage away from his bleeding neck, replacing it with her own. She pressed her own hand down in its place, disregarding the slick, warm sticky feel of blood.

"You're thinking about the horrible things that vampire did to your family, aren't you? And the horrible things she did to you." Yuki hiccupped, the first tears leaking from her ducts as though _she _were the one who was suffering. "It must have been so scary…but you don't…" She hiccupped again. "…need to suffer alone anymore."

Yuki made a vow that she intended to keep for the rest of her natural life, and perhaps even in death: "You're okay now. You're…okay. I'll always be by your side, Zero-kun. So you'll…be all right."

The ice sculpture that was his heart, already weakening since three weeks ago, began to quake and shatter further. Zero gazed at Yuki Cross' inclined head, the way she cried for him, the way she cradled his bloodied hand to her face so gently, the way she pressed her bare skin to his wound without flinching. Astonishment dawned as he realized that she meant her foolish words, her reckless vow.

Whether he liked it or not, this girl would indeed be by his side for the rest of his conceivable life.

And therein lay Zero's greatest fear: that he would _like _Yuki Cross to remain by his side, that he would _want _that, or worse, _need _that. That he would _need_ this gentle, tender princess with the eyes of an angel.

Heart surging with an emotion that he didn't dare to name, Zero felt his body tilt forward of his own accord, felt himself press his lips to Yuki's sweetly scented, fragrant hair.

"I'll come to dinner," he muttered against the crown of her head. "I'll come to dinner, so…stop crying."

_**Later that evening, at dinner~**_

The flamboyantly effeminate Headmaster waved a spoonful of some unidentifiable, noxious substance, in Zero's face.

"Won't you try some of my secret special, Zero-kun?" The pig-tailed, be-speckled man gushed.

Zero's iron grip on Yuki's hand tightened, and a vein ticked in his forehead.

"Oh, come on, Zero-kun," Yuki urged gently, thinking that the progress she'd made with the boy could be dashed by one single careless comment by her adoptive father.

"Yes, Zero-kun," Headmaster Cross cajoled, prancing back and forth like an eager cocker spaniel. "After all, it's a better alternative to, say, bl-"

Zero cut off the Headmaster with a vile curse, Zero wrenched away from Yuki and stomped out of the kitchen. Both man and girl winced at the distant slam of a door that shook the single-story house on its foundations.

"Oh well," Yuki muttered in an aside as Headmaster Cross slumped at the stove and moaned stuff along the lines of, "Where did I go wrong?"

At least they'd made a modicum of progress.

**Angel Or Princess? Zero Discovers a New Emotion/End**

**A/N: **Part of this chapter was based off of a flashback in the actual manga. The next batch of chapters will be out soon, and will be devised entirely in my own imagination ;)


	3. A Turning Point for

_The following two stories are pretty fluffy. I intended to publish at least three at once, but instead only posted these two. Um...another two will probably be out tomorrow if I can manage it. I'd also like to thank those who read, favorited, and subscribed. Thanks, lovelies :) Please review, if you have the time._

_Renewed Once and for All Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight. Obviously. _

**A Turning Point for the Young Knight and Princess**

One sleepy Sunday morning perhaps a couple of months proceeding his arrival at Kaien Cross' household, Zero was jolted awake from a peaceful slumber by a sudden weight crashing down onto his thin chest with all the force of speeding boulder.

After letting out a whoop of breath, Zero cracked open his eyes to glower at the small brunette girl who was perched on his chest, her rosebud mouth stretched into a mischievous grin. Yuki Cross weighed all of eighty pounds, probably less, but anyone would get the wind knocked out of them when a person who was approximately their size dropped out of the frigging sky and landed on their diaphragm without so much as a perfunctory warning.

Zero hissed at his foster sister, lilac eyes narrowing in an enraged expression. "Give a guy a warning, would you…?"

The eleven year old merely giggled, and ruffled Zero's already sleep-disheveled hair. "Silly Zero-kun. I was just waking you up. Calling your name, shaking you, and nudging you with a poker wasn't working." She shrugged her little shoulders carelessly, her long stream of hair shifting with her movements. "So I tried this." She giggled again, unrepentant. "It worked."

Zero felt his left eye twitch; an irritating tick that had started up whenever Yuki became particularly infuriating. Which was quite often.

But he couldn't deny that the darkness that was constantly weltering in his heart calmed whenever Yuki Cross was near him. She made him feel…safe. Peaceful. And, though he hardly dared to entertain the notion, cherished. When she soothed him to sleep with the stroking of her gentle little hand across his rumpled hair, when she smiled so kindly at him that his heart wrenched, he felt cherished.

When he didn't feel burdened, that is to say. When not acting the protective elder sister, Yuki followed him around like a _baby _sister, a puppy starved for attention. At times, Zero honestly didn't know what to do with her. Chucking her out of the nearest window was a tempting option at times, but not the wisest.

Although, at the moment, the wisdom of pulling a heave-ho and watching her little body sail out of his window was up for debate.

Bouncing back off of him with another light-hearted, annoyingly awake and aware giggle, Yuki pranced like a prize pony over to Zero's wardrobe and began to rifle, uninvited, through his clothes.

Creaking up on one arm, Zero glared in her direction-or rather, her _general _direction, as his vision was still blurry from sleep. He'd been having such a lovely dream, too. About being cradled in the arms of a chocolate-haired angel, of being soothed to sleep by a lullaby sung in a sweet, tiny lilt…

Oh. Crap.

Zero let out a snarl of breath, flopping backwards so that his head thumped onto the pillow. If only there'd been enough force in the motion to knock some sense back into his brain. Now the infuriating girl was worming her slippery, sugar-spun way into his dreams? It was bad enough that he had to put up with her during the daytime, bad enough that, since that day in his room, she'd considered them to be friends.

Not only "friends". _Best _friends.

Ugh.

"Here ya go, Zero-kun!" Yuki trilled, tossing a small heap of clothing at the groggy moonlight-haired boy. The clothes landed directly on Zero, the trousers flopping onto his head, one pant leg hanging across his face.

"Why," Zero grunted, tugging the pants out of his eyes, "are you bothering me at this time in the morning on a _Sunday_?"

"I need your help, silly, that's why," Yuki chirped, bouncing back to flop onto his bed uninvited, mattress barely creaking under her insignificant weight.

Oh, I'll help you, Zero thought hotly, glaring ineffective daggers at his oblivious foster sister. I'll help you out of my room by tossing you onto your skinny little behind.

But all that Zero said was, "Get out so that I can get dressed."

Yuki blinked innocently. "But it isn't as if I haven't seen it all before, Zero-kun. When you first arrived here, I bathed you and dressed you and I saw your-"

Showing that a surprising amount of strength was stored up in his skinny frame, Zero cut Yuki off by snatching her up by the collar, dragging her across the room, and bodily depositing her outside of his doorway.

That…girl, he thought, a flush staining his cheeks as he shuffled into his clothing. Buttoning up the loose white shirt that Yuki had tossed unceremoniously at him, he wondered for the hundredth time why the heck her put up with Yuki Cross.

Well…there was _that. _But he could barely manage to admit the feeling to himself, and he had no wish to. It's very existence, although small, ticked him off to no end.

She was curled up beside his door in the hallway, tiny, pointy chin perched on her fist, warm eyes soft as though contemplating something of importance.

Probably that stupid pureblood Kaname Kuran, Zero thought with a good dose of venom. Bad enough that he was a vampire, but a _pureblood _vampire? The very notion was enough to make Zero wish to kill the teenager. What's more, from the way Yuki acted around the guy, it was clear who had taught the girl her innate tenderness. And the thought of a monster being so capable of sweet tenderness disturbed Zero. And also, in a corner of his heart, made him a tad…

Jealous. As much as he resented her annoying company, Zero had to admit that he was beginning to feel rather…possessive of the girl. And where the heck had that feeling come from?

Hazy eyes clearing when they landed on Zero, Yuki sprang to her feet and enveloped his narrow, calloused hand in her own miniature, soft one, tugging him to the kitchen.

"Where's your dad," Zero muttered, allowing himself to be towed along like the caboose of a train.

"Out," Yuki replied cheerfully. "Meeting with one of his business associates, I think. That's why I'm doing this now," she tossed over her shoulder, slanting a brief glance at Zero. "So it'll be a surprise."

Zero blinked impassively at her as the two of them rounded the corner into the brightly lit, pale-walled kitchen. "So that _what _will be a surprise?"

Yuki pointed to an ominous array of baking tools spread out across the counter, and the waiting oven. "I'm trying to bake some cookies. But…I'm not very good at it," she admitted in whisper, shame-faced as though she had just owned up to some grievous sin.

As opposed to going the course that any sane boy would, as in yelling Yuki's ear off for daring to wake him so early for such a _ridiculous _reason, Zero heaved out an exhale and padded over to the counter, adding the stuff that she'd forgotten to the pile: As in the flour, the sugar, the eggs, and everything else that was essential to actually making cookies.

"Oops." Yuki rubbed a hand across her hair, posing bashfully. "I guess that I forgot about that part."

"What were you going to make the cookies with," Zero muttered, struggling with the seal on the bag of flour. "A ceramic bowl and spoon? Wouldn't those come out rather crunchy?"

Yuki blinked slowly. Had Zero just made a _joke_? No way. Pigs would have flown first. Heck, pigs _and _hedgehogs.

Noticing the silver haired boys apparent struggles with the bag of flour, Yuki went to aid him in unsealing it. The problem was, Zero clearly had no wish for her help.

"Zero…kun…give…let…me…help," Yuki panted between tugs.

"No…way," Zero snarled back, pulling with more force than was warranted in a tug-o-war over a mere bag of flour.

"Don't…be…so…stubborn!"

"Stop…being…such…a…pain!"

"Give it!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No-"

Zero's protest was cut off abruptly as the flour bag snapped open and exploded in a white cloud-puff, settling like snow all over the two startled pre-teens.

They blinked rounded eyes at one another, their shining, respective colors the only shade besides white left on their upper bodies. They resembled two skinny, pale ghosts that had been frightened into silence by their own reflections.

Watching Yuki blink dumbly at him, her entire face and all of her hair coated in powdery white, Zero was overcome by an emotion that hadn't reared its head in longer than he could remember-

At first it was a mere snicker, a wavering of his lips, but the rising, bubbling force in his throat and stomach soon escalated into full blown gales of laughter.

Watching Zero bent over with his roars of chiming laughter at her expense, Yuki was torn between joy at the sight of Zero's first smile, and indignation over the fact that she was clearly the butt of his personal joke. Shaking in rage, Yuki grabbed a wooden spoon and whapped Zero over the head.

"You jerk! You're covered in this stuff too!" Yuki shrieked.

Zero raised an arm half-heartedly, too preoccupied with laughing his rear off to care much for Yuki's assault. "But you…look…so…ridiculous!"

"Grawr! You look exactly the same as I do! Zero-kun, you jerk!"

Their childish shrieks of rage and laughter echoed on the still, peaceful air of the morning.

_**Later that day~**_

Kaien Cross shed both his coat and glove simultaneously as he re-entered his abode at Cross Academy, puzzled slightly by the silence that hung heavy on the air of his household. On Sunday afternoons, his foster children were usually making at least a semblance of a racket, fighting over that bathroom, running the television; Zero's snarls that Yuki had better turn the volume down so that he could read his books had become the soundtrack of the last day of the weekend.

But not today. Both perplexed and slightly worried, Cross walked briskly down the hallway, peering into rooms as he passed them. Cresting at the kitchen, Cross was frozen in his tracks at the sight of what lay therein.

Laying across the counter were several baking sheets, spilling over with somewhat burned, but nonetheless appetizing-looking, chocolate chip cookies.

And there, at the foot of the island counter, laying on the tile floor like a pair of drowsy puppies, limbs carelessly entwined in their sleep, were Zero and Yuki.

**A Turning Point for the Young Knight and Princess/End**


	4. Their First Kiss! A St Xocolatl's Day

**Their First Kiss? A St. Xocolatl's Day Surprise!**

Yuki hummed beneath her breath, a particularly catchy commercial jingle that she had heard on television a few days ago, doing a happy shimmy as she skipped across the stretch of shaggy lawn that adjoined the back porch of the Headmaster's residence. She bent over on tip-toes to take a hearty sniff of the riotously blooming rosebush that clung to the side of the porch. Sighing happily, she straightened and continued her dance of joy.

Tomorrow was St. Xocolatl's Day. But it wasn't just any St. Xocolatl's Day.

It was her first St. Xocolatl's Day with Zero, her new foster brother.

It was also the perfect opportunity to wring a rare smile out of the boy.

Yuki fisted her hand in determination, a fierce grin taking over her gentle features. "I _will _make Zero-kun smile this St. Xocolatl's Day. Oh yeah! Fighting spirit!" Shoving her fist into the air, Yuki began to mentally formulate her plan while her vocal exclamations got more enthusiastic by the moment.

Meanwhile, back pasted to a strategic tree trunk, Zero listened to his room mate get carried away with dawning disbelief. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop; honestly, he hadn't. He'd merely been wandering around in the backyard, seeking relief from the blaring television and the dull comedy skit that Yuki had been viewing. The last thing that he expected was that the girl would burst outside and began to voice her plots for tomorrow.

And now, an unprecedented, unexpected flush stained his ivory cheeks, eyes wide and stunned. She was going to…give him a gift? He was loathe to own up to it, but he honest truth was that Zero had never received a present from a girl who wasn't related to him.

Not. Once.

Now what was he going to do? Granted, St. Xocolatl's Day was meant for girls to give presents to the boys in their life, not vice versa, but the gnawing sensation in the pit of his stomach felt uncomfortably akin to guilt. Yuki Cross was planning on gifting him, who often rebuked her constant kindness and behaved like an ungrateful wretch, in spite of the fact that she was the only person on the planet he considered to be his…friend, with something that she had thought out, and he…

The trace of a thought of giving _her _a gift had never so much as fleetingly crossed his mind.

Panicked, Zero peered around the wide girth of the tree, to stare with unabashed guilt at the happy, frolicking, selfless Yuki. As he gazed at her flying chocolate hair that was shaded with chestnut from the glint of the winter sunlight, his eyes happened to land on the bush that clung to the porch. It was blooming early that year, way ahead of season. Blooming with…

A figurative light bulb went off over Zero's head. His sharp mind swiftly formulated a plan, and the only dilemma that was left for him was when he would be able to sneak out of the house that night…?

_**The following morning~**_

Yuki exited her foster father's home office, chuckling to herself as the chorus of the man's ecstatic gushes filled the hallway. He was so pleased by the twenty tickets for her special shoulder massage, she contemplated giving him the same gift for the rest of their St. Xocolatl's Days together.

Now, just to give Zero his gift. Two spots of color touched her porcelain cheeks at the thought of presenting Zero with his gift. She would have made him chocolate, but she was no good at that…she pressed the folded square of paper between her soft palms, praying that Zero would appreciate this present. But she would need to hunt him down before giving it to him.

Wandering around the flat, calling his name softly, the last way she expected to find him was him caught in the middle of what was apparently his own search. Right in the middle of their sitting room, they bashed into one another and bounced off from the force. Zero had flinched away before she had, and Yuki noticed with regret that Zero still wasn't totally accustomed to unexpected contact. He allowed her to touch him every once in a while, but he mostly held her at arms length.

Both literally and figuratively.

One of Zero's arms was held behind his back; a smudge of dirt streaked over his left cheek. Had he been rooting around in the garden or something, like a little piglet? Yuki found the image strangely cute, although she doubted that Zero would appreciate the analogy.

"Um." When Zero remained silent, Yuki cleared her throat, and without preamble, thrust the square of paper at Zero. "Happy St. Xocolatl's Day, Zero-kun. Please accept this." There was a long stretch of silence. Peeling open one eye, Yuki peeked up at the impassive Zero. "Uh…you don't want it?" Yuki queried in a voice so small, mice would have been hard pressed to understand her.

With his free hand, Zero snatched the small offering away and unfolded it. On the top flap were the words, "Good for one errand." A stunning sort of disappointment, a disappointment that he resented to no end, began to surface right before he spotted the neat, girly handwriting on the bottom flap:

"Dear Zero-kun," it read, "I am so glad that I am able to spend this St. Xocolatl's Day with you, my first best friend ever. I hope that you please enjoy this gift, and that we are able to spend many more St. Xocolatl's Days with one another. Yuki-chan."

Yuki couldn't stifle a gasp at the tender, shy smile that curled over Zero's full mouth as he read the contents of the errand ticket. The smile was so sweet and lovely, her knees felt momentarily weak. She hadn't known that Zero had such tenderness in him. But said stunned gasp was nothing compared to the one that she emitted when Zero pulled his arm out from behind his back and proffered her a gorgeous, stunning pink rose that was caught in the adolescent state of being half bloomed. The long stem was gripped in Zero's slightly shaky hand, and she observed that he must have painstakingly removed the thorns so that her own hands would be safe. Half healed, tiny cuts marred the tips of Zero's fingers.

With a hand that shook even harder than Zero's, Yuki tentatively accepted the stunningly beautiful, frail rose, cradling it to her chest as though it were a young baby. Their fingers brushed as it transferred hands.

Brushing tiny fingers over the smooth, fragrant petals, Yuki glanced back up at Zero, whose head was still ducked, a curtain of silver bangs shading his expression. Caught in a wavering moment of indecision, Yuki made up her mind and pranced forward, smacking a firm, delighted kiss onto Zero's smooth cheek.

"Thank you, Zero," Yuki whispered against the warm, soft flesh of his cheek, for the first time calling him by name without using honorifics. Before the stunned, agape Zero could respond, Yuki had skipped off, chirping about finding a vase as lovely as the rose.

Zero continued to stare after her, even when she'd disappeared from sight, mouth hanging open like an imbecile, cheeks burning hotter than they ever had in his entire life.

What…the…heck? Zero thought, heart moving in unsteady, foreign manner. What had just happened?

In the kitchen, going through the Headmaster' s crystal goblets with less care than her foster father would have liked, Yuki reflected that Zero had been quite happy with her gift to him.

Maybe should give him the same thing every subsequent St. Xocolatl's Day from now on.

**Their First Kiss? A St. Xocolatl's Day Surprise/End**


	5. A Mysterious New Face At School?

_The following three stories have been published simetaneously. I might not publish anymore until later this week, as I'm going to be busy with finishing up a chapter in a series of mine. :D I'd like to thank those who reviewed, favorited and subscribed! Thank you, lovelies. _

**A Mysterious New Face At School…?**

As Yuki Cross knotted the tie around Zero Kiryu's slender throat will all of the gentle forbidding of an executioner with a noose, the moonlit haired boy quivered and snorted like a prize colt prepared to make a break for it.

Apparently oblivious to her friend's trepidation, Yuki continued to chatter along as she straightened up his middle school uniform, "Now, Zero, the middle school and grade school are in the same building, so we'll probably see one another often, although we won't be in the same class. I ask that you please play nice with the other children, don't cause any riots, and please don't throw any punches. We might see one another during lunch break…"

"Yuki," Zero growled, having abandoned any pretense of civility in his dread for the upcoming event-that is to say, his first day at Cross Academy's primary school campus. "I am twelve years old. I do not need you to dress me like I'm five and lecture me as if you're years older than me."

As a matter of fact, Yuki was one year and a few months younger than Zero. Though you couldn't prove it by the way she treated him on a regular basis.

Yuki was too preoccupied with the happy glow that resulted from Zero calling her by name, which he rarely did. They'd long ago abandoned the practice of using honorifics on one another. On Yuki's part, this was due to the strong feelings of trust and friendship that she nurtured for Zero. On Zero's part, it was most likely a lack of manners.

"Yuki!" Zero snapped when the tiny brunette merely stood stock still before him, round cheeks flushed, glowing in Zero's use of her given name. She jolted, shook herself out of it, and grasped Zero's hand, leading him out of the Headmaster' s residence to the cool early spring morning that awaited outside. The cherry blossom trees that ruled the campus weren't quite in bloom, their buds flushed with that first hint of pink like an edge of dawn.

As she was still in grade school, Yuki wasn't required to wear a uniform, although she made up for this with her own personal uniform of a pleated skirt, tight sweater, knee socks and patent leather Mary Janes. Her face was aglow as she skipped along the cobblestone path, dragging a reluctant Zero in her wake. The boy was grumbling swear words, the likes of which Yuki had never heard before she'd met him, under his breath.

Though he didn't snatch his hand away from Yuki's. He couldn't bring himself to recoil from the warmth she gave him.

God, he was an idiot.

A crowd of prepubescent children began to accumulate around them, bustling from the primary school dorms to descend upon the path that widened out to a courtyard in front of the grade school/middle school building. The place was possessed of the typical Gothic structure and atmosphere that ran rampant across the campus. Soaring peaks, stone gray gables, squatting gargoyles.

Zero found the entire thing rather tiresome.

"Oh, Yori-chan!" Yuki, using her free arm, waved frantically to a young girl with soft shoulder-length caramel hair and round eyes. The girl smiled gently at Yuki before wandering over in an absent way, her soothing presence a balm to Zero's frazzled nerves. Unlike the bouncy Yuki, this girl was calm and mature. She was also rather cute, although the last thing Zero wanted was to become interested in a girl.

Oh, wait, it was too late for that one, wasn't it?

Glowering at Yuki as if she was solely responsible for the stupid weak emotions that had arisen in his heart, Zero barely caught the calm girl's name-Sayori Wakaba. He gave a curt nod at the girl's polite greeting, noting with a twinge of envy how Yuki embraced the other girl so tenderly. Zero still wasn't very fond of watching Yuki hold others, which was completely irrational way of thinking, but it couldn't be helped. Yuki was…well, she was his. More even than that cursed pureblood, Kaname Kuran, Yuki Cross belonged solely to Zero.

And one day she would realize that. Zero would show her that she was his and his alone. Had been bound his since that winter's night, the night that she had melted the cold both on the inside and outside of Zero. Poor girl hadn't known what she'd gotten herself into, showing kindness to a starving wolf cub.

One day, Zero thought, a thunder cloud taking up residence on his brow, I'll show her that she's mine. When I'm older, like Kaname Kuran, and tall and strong, I'll manipulate that soft little heart of hers and…

He shook his head like a wet dog, sharp sunlight glinting off the silver of his hair in broken crystalline shards. What was he thinking? He didn't deserve devotion, not the sort that he was contemplating. And yet…that sad, miserable fact did little to stave off Zero's wanting.

He was jolted out of his mutinous thoughts when Yuki suddenly threw herself at him, wrapping surprisingly strong arms about his neck like warm manacles.

"I'll miss you, Zero," she sniffled, rubbing her runny nose on Zero's immaculate collar.

"Stupid," Zero grunted, pushing at her to no avail. The eleven year old was wrapped tighter than a barnacle. "It's just school. We'll be in the same building."

"Yuki-chan is attached to Zero-kun," Sayori Wakaba observed, her prematurely wise eyes taking in the way Zero's arms had gone around Yuki's slim waist in acute contrast to his disgruntled words.

"Unfortunately," Zero grumbled, taking in the way other children had paused to observe the Headmaster's daughter clinging to the mysterious new face. A couple young girls giggled at how good looking a boy Zero was, and how silly and shameless the Cross girl was for unabashedly throwing herself at him.

Humph, Zero thought, glaring to himself. Little brats.

"What are you looking at!" Zero snarled in booming tones, a shocking amount of volume stored up in his skinny chest. "Get the heck to your classes!" There was a stunned, stretching silence. "Do I look like I'm talking to myself? Get to class now!" Zero shook the fist that wasn't wrapped around Yuki's waist to emphasize his threat.

The spectators scattered, scurrying off to class.

"Hmmm," Sayori mused while Yuki stared at her foster brother in unabashed bemusement. "Perhaps Zero-kun should be a prefect when he's older."

"As if that'll ever happen," Zero grumped. He tugged Yuki along. "Come on, dummy. We need to get to class."

**A Mysterious New Face At School…?/End**


	6. Lucky Number Thirteen

**Lucky Number Thirteen**

Yuki Cross was plotting. In fact, she was plotting so manically and diabolically, a tiny corner of her mind fretted over whether or not she'd been watching too many of the Headmaster's favorite daytime soap operas. The only thing that was missing was the fact that she wasn't sporting at all black top-hat and she wasn't twirling a curlicue moustache.

Although she did believe her foster father, the Headmaster, owned a black top hot somewhere. Hmmm…

Shaking herself out of he wandering thoughts, Yuki plopped her behind down onto the armchair that stood sentinel by her small marble fireplace, and rested her chin in her hands. Calm down, she ordered herself. Things won't go as planned if you get all up in a tizzy and carried away.

Oh, but she _wanted _to get carried away. In all of her eleven years, six of which she could actually remember, she had never been so excited. She kicked her feet and clapped her hands excitedly, regressing to toddler-hood.

There was a brisk, staccato knock on the door to her room. Clearing her throat and jolting upright, Yuki smoothed her pleated skirt demurely and called out in a prim voice, "Come in."

The door clicked open to reveal Zero Kiryu. His silver and moonlight hair had grown shaggier in the months since she'd first met him, shading the sharp angles of his face that were as yet softened with traces of youth and baby fat.

His impassive lilac eyes took in Yuki's forcibly demure position, and he wondered what had crawled up her behind and died. The girl looked constipated.

"Dinner's ready," he said curtly, and started to exit, pulling the door shut along with his retreat. The less time he spent noticing how pretty the young girl was, the better. He had absolutely no right to notice such things, in spite of how very much he longed to.

"Wait." Yuki had jumped out of the chintz armchair, bouncing over to the door and wedging her foot between it and the jamb. Zero blinked apathetically at her.

"Um." Yuki scuffed one of her bare feet. "Will Zero please join me in the sitting room on Saturday?"

"Why," he said flatly, already growing tired with her vague requests.

"Just, please, Zero," Yuki begged, folding her hands beneath her chin and pulling out her puppy face.

Zero held firm for several moments, gritting his teeth against her infuriatingly adorable assault. He lasted perhaps five minutes; his narrow shoulders slumped and he grumbled an assent.

He padded off before Yuki's jubilant hug of triumph could nab him. The little girl teetered on the toes of one foot, nearly fell flat on her face, and was forced to catch the door jamb to regain her balance.

Zero's lips quirked as the sound Yuki's "Baka Zero!" echoed throughout the hall.

_**That Saturday afternoon~**_

Zero took in the draping streamers and confetti and ribbons in shades of lilac and silver with dawning astonishment blended with horror. His brain couldn't process what was before him, but given the decorations, plus the luxurious, clearly store baked cake and the square packages wrapped in gleaming tinfoil, this could not be anything save for a birthday party.

"What…the…" Zero bit off one of his favorite swear words in a choked voice, shocking the beaming Yuki and Headmaster Cross momentarily right in the middle of their joyous whoops.

"Zero…why are you reacting this way?" Yuki questioned cluelessly as the Headmaster whimpered in a corner of the room, snorting into a hanky. "You've upset Headmas…" The effeminate man's ears perked. "Father," she corrected herself reluctantly.

"Whaddya mean, why am I reacting this way?" Zero demanded, letting his frustration loose as he verbally tore into Yuki, who plugged her ears under the maelstrom of his tirade. "I'm just minding my own business, waltzing in here to meet you like you _nagged _me to, and I immediately begin to worry when I can't find you or your loony father anywhere in the entire house! _Then _you two spring up like jack-in-the-boxes from behind the coffee table, nearly give me a heart attack, and you ask my _why am I reacting this way?_"

Yuki blinked eyes that had gone large and watery with tears. "B-but…I j-just wanted to g-give Z-Zero a surprise on his b-birthday…"

Steeling himself against the threatening torrent of oncoming tears, Zero bit off, "How do you even know that it's my birthday today? I don't recall telling you anything about it…"

"I'm sorry Zero-kun." From his pity corner, Cross waved his lacy handkerchief like a white flag of surrender. "I looked it up in your records. And Yuki wanted to throw you a party so very badly…" The be-speckled man shrugged in apology, clearly unrepentant.

Zero seriously contemplated seizing the cake frosted with edible lilacs and bashing the stupid man upside the head with it for having the audacity to get Yuki's fragile hopes up, but valiantly resisted his baser impulses. Barely.

He was side tracked from his hypothetical plotting by the bedraggled sniff that emerged from Yuki as she ran her sleeve beneath her nose in an attempt to stave off her snuffling. Why was…she was crying?

Oh no, Zero thought, entire body locking up in dread. She _was _crying, the tears that had threatened to well earlier now spilling down in a silent stream, glistening on her rounded, pink cheeks. Why did the darn girl have to be so cute when she cried? It was utterly unfair. People where meant to be unattractive while they cried, all blotched faced and snot-nosed.

But not Yuki. She resembled a young, weeping Virgin Mary.

Darn it.

Zero's long, heartfelt sigh carried the woe of every young man and boy on the planet who had been swayed from their better judgment by the tears of a pretty young girl. The following words cost his pride and dignity dearly, but he managed to choke them out without too much trouble:

"I'll…accept your gifts," he growled.

The tears ceased as though routed up to a spigot, and someone had turned the handle to "off".

"Really?" she asked in a tremulous, hopeful voice. "And you'll stay for the cake and the congratulations…?"

Zero's head nodded of it's own volition, nearly creaking on his stiff neck.

"Wahoo!" Yuki cheered, jumping up to high-five with her foster father as Zero looked on disapprovingly. She trotted back over to Zero, thrusting out a slim package and chirping, "Happy thirteenth birthday, Zero-kun!"

And so the torture began. Zero was forced to sit through gushing congratulations bestowed upon him by his foster family as the foisted overly creamy-sweet cake and foil wrapped packages on him, beaming and tittering like dimwitted blue birds.

Yuki even went so far as to bodily shove a hefty slice of vanilla cake into his mouth and down his unsuspecting, unwelcoming throat. He nearly choked the foamy, sickly sweet bakery confection, barely managing to choke it down. At Yuki's hopeful smile, he forced a grimace that was a sad parody of a true pleased grin.

"And now," Yuki said an agonizing while later, arms folded behind her back. "I have one last special present for Zero."

If it was a puppy or a pair of boxers-or another slice of cake-Zero was going to scream and book it.

But it wasn't. Rather, it was yet another slim package wrapped in silver foil, done up with a lilac bow. Zero noticed disgustedly that those two colors seemed to be a prevalent theme in this sham of a party. Gingerly, he accepted the package with all of the care of a trained bomb squad member and ripped the packaging aside.

It was a slim volume of poetry bound in supple brown leather with the characters printed in gold leaf etched across the cover.

Zero ran a soft, reverent thumb across the buttery surface, overtaken by a slight sense of awe.

"I know that Zero likes to read," Yuki bubbled, plopping down beside him on the stretch of couch. "So I thought that you might like it…"

Zero's soft smile, a smile that she hadn't been blessed with viewing since St. Xocolatl's Day, bloomed across his full mouth, eyes going wistful and longing as he contemplated his present.

"I like it," he declared softly. Not meeting Yuki's questioning eyes, he added, "I like it a lot."

He was already braced for the ecstatic hug that Yuki tackled him with, and so managed to remain upright as Yuki squeezed him and gushed at him.

At that very moment, Kaien Cross lifted the camera dangling on a strap around his neck discreetly and snapped a photo, forever catching a silver haired boy caught in the beginnings of an enthusiastic embrace gifted by a tiny brunette girl.

**Lucky Number Thirteen/End**


	7. Hold My Hand When I'm Lonely

_A note on the text: This chapter has been partially based off of chapter 39.5 of Hino-sensei's official manga. If you'd like to read the bonus chapter, I recommend the website ourmanga, as onemanga, another top quality manga scans site, has gone bye-bye. I'd recommend the actual volume of the manga, as I support the original artists in all things, but I don't believe that it's actually been released in any language other than Japanse yet officially. But this is only a partial adaptation. I've omitted Kaname-sama's appearance, but not out of malice. I simply want this anthology to focus on Zero and Yuki and their relationship, and want to KEEP it that way. I like Kaname-sama and am anti-character bashing, but this anthology is for fans of Zero-kun and Yuki-chan and also for Zeki followers. That being said, please enjoy..._

**Hold My Hand When I'm Lonely**

Yuki giggled at the comedy sketch that was unfolding in all of its scratchy black and white glory on the rounded screen of the Headmaster's outdated television set. Digging her somewhat bent and misshapen spoon into the confines of the half-excavated tub of ice cream, Yuki snorted another laugh when the straight man in the team whacked the funny man over the head with a very large, very loud folded fan.

Her tiny ears perked at the sound of a key scraping in the door that led into the Headmaster's residence at Cross Academy, and she bounced up off the long off-white couch to greet her foster father and foster brother. They'd been gone for most of the morning since she had awoken, and she was eager to see them both again.

Dumping the tub of confectionary frozen delight carelessly onto the cushion that she'd vacated, Yuki made her way to greet them both with her characteristic skip. At the sight of the shaggy-haired Zero, Yuki lifted her hand in cheerful greeting, preparing to glomp on him with all the force of the mild loneliness that had haunted her while he was away.

Only to stop short so quickly that her bare heels left skid marks on the soft carpet.

There, on the left side of Zero's ivory neck, was an elaborate, primitive tattoo done in a purplish silver that weirdly complemented the young thirteen year old's coloring.

"What…is that?" Yuki whimpered, unbelieving eyes fixed on the inking as though it would leap off of Zero's skin and eat her. She gripped Zero by the lapels of his hoodie and shook him frantically.

Getting over the brief dizziness that made his brains feel as if they'd been scrambled, Zero nodded curtly. He'd figured that the girl would react negatively, and dramatically. "Why are you asking?" he queried in a monotone. "It's a tattoo. Of course."

So he was prepared when Yuki wailed, "Zero is turning into a delinquent!", tears coursing down her cheeks with the force of a heavy tropical summer downpour. Although he could have done without it all the same.

Zero expelled an exasperated sigh, muttering wryly, "Calling me a delinquent because of this, are you stupid or something?"

"B-b-but this is gonna cause an uproar in our school!" Yuki whined as the Headmaster tromped into the kitchen to greet the daytime maid.

Zero puffed an annoyed breath out of his nostrils, before glaring at Yuki head on and stating, "I don't need you to get meddlesome with me, okay? I don't care what the Headmaster says, we aren't family and you're not my sister." His lovely, icy eyes burned with a cold fire. "And besides, when I look at Yuki, I…"

He trailed off, biting his lip. "You what?" Yuki wondered, eyes wide with both hurt and inquiry.

Instead of answering her, Zero shoved past her and down the hallway. His foots made thudding sounds that were incongruous with his slight weight before his door slammed shut with reverberations that shuddered the thin walls.

Yuki stared after him bleakly, thinking to herself that perhaps she and Zero hadn't made that much progress after all. If this was the way he insisted on treating her…did he even care at all? At times she had the feeling that Zero did care for, and care for her greatly, but then the trickle of hope would be banished with one of Zero's careless rebuffs. The boy had a demeanor as icy as his hair.

"I'm a fool," Yuki murmured to herself, bracing her back against the wall that still trembled from the force of Zero's slamming door. "He doesn't want to have anything to do with me…"

Meanwhile, in his own room, Zero had jammed his small body into a corner of the dark space, curling his legs up to his chest much as he had during the first three weeks of his sojourn at Cross' home. Well, it hadn't turned out to be much of sojourn, considering that he still lived with the man and his infernal daughter.

The infernal daughter who pushed Zero to the limit with every innocent remark, with every piercing look from her lushly lashed chocolate eyes. God, he was a creep for nurturing these sorts of feelings towards her, certainly considering what he might one day turn in to, in spite of the protective magic that this tattoo was supposed to wrought.

Absently, Zero pressed the hand that wasn't curled into a fist on top of one of his knees to the side of his tattooed neck. It was the same place where he'd been bitten. He could almost feel the ragged, open sides of his wound. Could nearly feel the sharp, slick fangs tearing him up…

The tattoo pulsed along with the throb of Zero's suddenly rapid heartbeat.

He flinched when the light burning in the hallway sliced across his narrowed eyes; the door creaked open gently to reveal a petite silhouette. The déjà vu strengthened with painful clarity, snaring him further back to that dark night during those first weeks of his stay.

Only he wasn't scratching at a wound this time around, but rather stewing in a less tangible form of misery and pain. And instead of lunging across the meters of space that separated them, Yuki Cross padded quietly in her slippered feet, cradling a plastic bowl in her delicate, gentle hands.

Folding her short skirt beneath her bottom, Yuki settled about a foot from Zero, keeping a wise distance even as she stretched out her arms and offered him the swiftly melting bowl of ice cream.

"For Zero," she stated, eyes shining softly with a chocolate light. Warm, sweet chocolate that he wanted to drown in. He wanted to absorb her comfort, to find peace in the depths of her eyes, peace that he did not deserve and would never give into, except perhaps right before he fell asleep every night.

He only looked at the ice cream and the hands that offered it with impassive eyes. The hands shook, and she set the ice cream aside.

There was a stretch of silence weighted with invisible tears that Yuki refused to let fall. He was always, always rejecting the smallest of things. Stupid teenage boy, she thought, knuckling away a tear that had escaped the prison of her ducts. Zero had only been thirteen for a few months, but teenage surliness sure as heck suited him.

The unexpected sensation of Zero's palm enfolding hers made her start, and she absorbed his trademark cold heat with guilty thankfulness. He never reached for her; it was always the other way around.

Until today, that is.

Zero cleared his throat; and even with that fortification, his voice came huskier than usual. "It's not as if I dislike you or anything…" He clenched his teeth. Crap. He was no good at communicating, let alone communicating the more tender feelings that were nestled within the more prevalent darkness of his young heart.

"It's okay." Yuki's voice was wavering with relief. "I understand what you're trying to say, Zero."

And she did. Wasn't that a kicker? Zero thought dryly. She truly did understand. She understood that Zero wasn't the type to express that he did in fact care for him, and that she was the one who he wanted near him when he was lonely. He was rarely lonely, but the assurance of her presence did a lot for him nonetheless.

And, although Yuki would long for Kaname-sama at all waking hours, for a reason that she couldn't fathom, Zero was the person whom she wanted to hold when _she _was in the cold, clawed grip of loneliness.

Their hands remained intertwined for quite a while, the ice cream melting into a runny liquid in the bowl beside them.

**Hold My Hand When I'm Lonely/End**


	8. To Catch a Falling Star

**To Catch a Falling Star**

Zero Kiryu was preoccupied with a volume of lengthy essays, peacefully whiling away the afternoon, when Yuki Cross slammed open the door to his room and grinned like an idiot.

She was known for smiling foolishly and ecstatically; a happiness, Zero would at times reflect during his less charitable moments, that was possessed only by those ignorant to the world's trials and sadness. The tiny, pretty brunette had never known hardship since the day Kaname Kuran-darn that jerk-had rescued her and brought her to the safety and shelter of the Headmaster's home.

But, as soon as the betraying thought wiggled through Zero's sharp mind, he would just as soon dismiss it. He was quite aware that he was being unfair in the extreme. Yuki was an orphan, just as Zero was. And, though he'd been forced to witness their bloody deaths, at least he had had the privilege of knowing and remembering them.

Even if the memories most often surfaced in blood-soaked nightmares.

As for Yuki, from age five she'd been a veritable blank slate, a complete tabula rasa. And, under the influence of that flamer Headmaster Cross, the girl had bloomed into a frigging ray of lemon-yellow sunshine.

"There you are, Zero!" Yuki exclaimed happily, bustling into Zero's room as though she owned the place, in spite of the fact that Zero had tendered no invitation to cross his threshold. The twelve year old girl plopped down beside Zero, where he was propped up amongst pillows on his bed, skinny legs stretched out in front of himself.

Yuki peered over Zero's shoulder, delicate brows bunching down over her wide chocolate eyes in confusion as she attempted to peruse the contents of the page that Zero was on. There was no way that the girl could unravel the jargon of Freud, but it was certainly interesting to watch her attempt it. Steam may as well have streamed from her perfect shell ears, that was how confused her expression was.

Zero, all the while feeling like a class-A creep, could not help but absorbed the sweet, clean scent that permeated the air with her presence. It reminded him, vaguely, of roses-not the heavy, overly perfumed fragrance of store-bought bouquets, the sort that ninety percent of the time gave Zero a fit of sneezing. No, the sort that grew in back gardens, clean and sharp and gentle. The sort that Zero had picked for Yuki those months ago-it seemed like such a very long stretch of time, though it had been less than a year.

Yuki still kept that rose pressed between the plastic-wrapped pages of her scrapbook.

The same scrapbook that contained some very incriminating and embarrassing photos of Zero himself…such as one particular photograph of a sleeping Zero, racy red lipstick smeared over his face in a parody of clown makeup.

Zero had nearly made Yuki cry for _that _particular incident.

While Zero had been soaking in scent and memories, Yuki's confusion had reached that of epic proportions. She abruptly gasped, coloring a deep pink shade that emphasized just how thin her soft skin was.

Don't go there, Kiryu, Zero thought to himself darkly.

"Zero! This…this person is talking about…about!"

"Well, _of course_," Zero said with no token amount of exasperation at his best friend's naiveté. "It's Freud, you fool. He always equates everything with…" Zero abruptly gulped, at a loss for appropriate words. How to phrase such a thing politely, and in front of Yuki, of all people. Feeling a slow burn begin beneath his own ivory skin, Zero settle for a neutral word, tone curt, "with _that_."

"Oh." Shifting uncomfortably, Yuki looked down at her swinging, slipper-clad feet. Awkwardness cut sharply into the atmosphere. Snapping the book shut, and setting it aside, Zero concentrated on anything_, _absolutely anything, aside from Yuki, who was as yet remaining way too close to him. How did he get himself into these situations…?

A long moment later, Yuki sprang back to hyper life, catching Zero's down-turned eyes with her own shining ones. Excitement sparkled in their fawn-like depths. "I nearly forgot why I came to get you!" Childish euphoria spiked her words.

"Came to get me…?" Zero asked blankly, thrown off-kilter by the sudden change in attitude.

"Yes! A comet is supposed to streak by this area in a few minutes-it said so on the television!" Yuki was now bouncing up and down, causing the springs of Zero's bed to squeak and groan in sympathy.

Zero wanted to groan along with the bedsprings. "You watch too much television."

"Stupid Zero! This is _important! _I will not let you be a party-pooper _this time_, the way you ALWAYS are."

"Did you seriously just call me a party-p-" The last, juvenile phrase (one that Zero had been merely _quoting, _mind you) was cut off when Yuki wrapped a surprisingly strong hand around Zero's upper arm, and, propelling them forward with the force of her frantic feet, dragged Zero off his bed, out of his bedroom, down the short hall of the Headmaster's residence, and out the back door.

They happened to pass Cross on the way out. If Zero had any plans for supplication to the Headmaster, a plea for help, they quickly withered when the Headmaster waved a cheery hand and called out indulgently, "Play nice, my dears!"

Ugh. What an idiot. At times, Zero wondered if the Headmaster and Yuki were biologically related, after all.

Yuki sighed with relief the moment she and her foster brother cleared the rim of the back door, wending their way through the jungle of a backyard. Not the most savvy of gardeners, Headmaster Cross had recently allowed the plants outside of his flat to go awry.

The gardener had long ago quit, claiming that he couldn't work under the conditions of Yuki being overly bubbly and annoying, and apparently the man had thought Zero's unwavering, grownup gaze creepy.

"Here we are." Plopping down on a patch of relatively clear ground, Yuki flopped backwards, back hitting the grassy surface with a muffled, gentle thump. Reclining, the view of the clear night sky was perfect for watching a streaking, falling star.

Grumbling about over-enthusiastic little girls who never knew when to get their panties out of a bunch, Zero flopped beside her. He put up no complaint when Yuki reached for his hand and laced their fingers together. Or, at the very least, no overt complaint.

Yuki gasped in delight when the sky began to lighten, and then, streaking with all the fierce speed of a freight train, lit up with a cool fire that put the gaudy yellow sun to shame, a diamond flared across the bowl of the clear night sky. The stars were momentarily dimmed by its fleeting glory.

"Beautiful," Yuki sighed, eyes fixed on the phenomenon.

"Yeah." Caught off guard by the uncharacteristic tenderness in Zero's voice, Yuki briefly turned her head to the side. Her friend's lilac eyes were meltingly soft and latched on her, full mouth curving on a gentle smile. A smile that she rarely got to see-was the rarity of the smile what caused her heart to flutter?

Surely that was so. There was no other plausible exclamation.

The wavering, tender moment was over before it had truly began; Zero shifted his head to the side, shaggy hair scraping over the blades of grass, to watch the comet as it made its way across the heavens before fading away.

Just rock and flame, Zero thought. Nothing special. And yet, the dregs of a smile lingered.

"Zero?" Yuki said in the ensuing silence. The night seemed quieter now.

"Yeah?"

"Why were you reading a dirty book?"

"You…you idiot!" Before either quite knew it, a wrestling match had ensued. "That wasn't a dirty book, it was Freud!"

"So? Why can't Freuds be dirty!"

"You moron! Freud was a psychologist…!"

**To Catch a Falling Star/End**


	9. Zero's Delinquent Days

_Hi, everybody! Here's another lovely little fluffy drabble for ya. Yuki doesn't show up much, sorry, but the basis of this is Zero skipping school. Naughty Zero-kun! In the manga, it mentioned how Yuki and Zero ended up in the same class because Zero was constantly skipping junior high, and I'd thought I'd show that in this story. It was also my intention to explain how Zero got his ear piercings, and I like to think I did a good enough job with it. Please read and review. In the next story, Yuki and Zero go through *gasp* puberty! Teeheehees. _

**Zero's Delinquent Days**

It was a dreary Monday morning, the worst sort that there can possibly be-drizzling rain, a glowering sky that could not decide whether it was gray or black, and a certain aura of monotony. Moreover, these things did not lessen, but rather augmented, the sensation of oh, dear lord, why must it be Monday?

Zero Kiryu had absolutely no intention of spending the day in school.

One would think, logically, that since the weather was so foul and dreary, that whiling away one's time within the shelter of a building wouldn't be so bad, after all. Zero agreed wholeheartedly with that logic, although he was an athletic boy by nature and preferred to spend his time out of doors. But, in this case, he wanted to choose to spend his time in a building that was not the academic sort. One of the few things that he enjoyed about school, aside from staring out the window, was physical education. Given the weather, there was a small percentage of chance that PE would be held. And, if it was, the time would be spent indoors playing Uno and Trivial Pursuit.

This wouldn't be the first time that he had skipped out of junior high, Zero thought to himself as he strode down the tree shaded path connecting the Headmaster's residence to the gates that rimmed the sprawling campus. Zero was in fact a child genius, and when he bothered to attend and pay attention in class, his grades were beyond good. All he had to do was listen once, and the facts and figures, names and places, would remain firmly docked in his brain.

Problem was, Zero rarely bothered to listen.

"Oh, Zero," the Headmaster would despair when Zero was called into the office for falling asleep in class, throwing paper airplanes at the teachers, threatening fellow students with maiming, or failing yet another test. "If only you would apply yourself and pay attention in class. You're too intelligent a boy to…"

And on and on the lecture would continue, until Zero began to nod off, his wide lilac and frost eyes going hazy and soft. Until the Headmaster wailed too loudly. Or if Yuki happened by. Then she would pinch Zero awake just for kicks and giggles.

Zero would then chase her around the Headmaster's residence until he had caught and tackled her. This would be promptly followed by one of their many wrestling matches.

Wrestling matches that would not be going on much longer, if Zero continued to grow at the rate he should. Before long, his chest would be wider, shoulders broader, and he would shoot up at least half a foot.

Catching himself smiling nostalgically at the thoughts of his antics with Yuki and the prospect of growing tall and strong, Zero scowled. For one thing, he didn't want go through something as stupid as smiling at the thought of Yuki. For another, the prospect of growing tall and strong reminded him of the promise he had made himself on the dawn of his first day at this school.

The promise to make Yuki realize that she was his.

Can't very well do that, can you? Zero thought darkly, splashing through the puddles and kicking water up in great, shimmering arcs. You scrawny excuse for a male. Zero would be fourteen soon enough, and if he didn't near six feet soon, he was going to explode.

Having worked himself up into a huff, as he was wont to do, Zero didn't become aware of his surroundings until he had long passed through the gates and ventured into town. The shopping district was largely empty today, both due to the fact that most working adults were commuting around this time, and most children were cloistered in that prison that passed for a school.

Tilting his head back and forth, Zero perused the various "attractions". There were storefronts, stands, and miscellaneous things. All were same old, same old…he should have just wandered over to the stables where White Lily, the foal he was nursing, stayed. At least she wouldn't expect him to strike up a conversation. Although, and this embarrassed him to no end, he murmured soothingly to the horse once and a while.

The rain had plastered his shaggy, shoulder-brushing moonlit hair to his skull, shading it to a dark pewter. Straggling bangs got in his eyes, but nonetheless, he caught the booth with the sign that glared loudly: "Free earrings for first time piercing."

Piercings, eh? Zero had always wondered what it would be like to pierce his ears. And, considering that the closest thing they had to ear-pierces at Cross's residence were staplers and needles, Zero found this to be the most golden of opportunities.

Would he need parental permission? Whatever. He could always wave the money he had scooped from his under-the-mattress stash beneath the booth proprietor's nose.

Fifteen minutes later, the delicate skin of his ears smarting a little, Zero walked away with a pair of all-new piercings. As he had predicted, the moment the cash made its appearance, all protests of parental-signatures went out the metaphorical window.

The first piercing went through the very top of his left ear, piercing cartilage. That one had hurt worse. The cylindrical metal tube was about a couple centimeters long.

The second piercing, on his right lobe, was his favorite of the two. Stunningly intricate, it resembled a loop of spiraling thorns that had somehow pierced the lamb-soft skin of his earlobe.

Smiling a little to himself, even enjoying the pain in a masochistic way, Zero strolled home whistling.

_**That afternoon~**_

"Zero!" Yuki wailed, expressional chocolate eyes melting with tears. "Now you look even more like a delinquent.

Rising on the balls of his fee to grab a box of snack food from the cupboard, Zero smirked as he came down to rest on his heels. Shaking the box of snacks before digging around within the cardboard confines, Zero said, "I take it you don't like them."

Well, actually, Yuki had to admit that the piercings paired with his tattoo made him look dangerous in an appealing, grownup way. Not that she would ever admit to it. Oh, what had happened to the innocent young boy who had come to her almost two years ago?

Sniffling and crossing her arms, Yuki pouted. "You've already got enough holes in your head. If you keep this up, all your brains are gonna leak out."

"At least I have brains to spare," Zero jabbed, munching on the sweet biscuits.

Yuki sucked in a breath, a sure sign that she was about to go off and blow Zero's house down. But the words that emerged from her sweet, pouting mouth were surprisingly anticlimactic, "Hey, when did you get that, anyway?" Not exactly on the level of Sherlock Holmes when it came to powers of deduction, it took a moment for Yuki's brain to process the implications. "Zero…you skipped school again, didn't you?" She pointed an accusing, dramatic finger.

Struggling not to laugh, Zero scooped up another handful of crumbling biscuit, shrugging. His voice was commendably indifferent. "What of it?"

"Zero, if you keep this up, you'll have to repeat a year."

Zero rolled his heavily lashed eyes. "Yeah, right."

As it turned out, Yuki's prediction would show to be remarkably astute.

**Zero's Delinquent Days/End**


	10. Bewildering Bodily Changes

_Heheheh...in this story, my sadistic side rears its head. Poor Zero, poor Yuki. Oh, the awkwardness. There's a minor ick warning in affect for this chapter. If you're a guy, anyways. If you're a girl, you'll probably be laughing your butt off. This, by the way, is a two part drabble, because I couldn't write the whole thing and have it remain under the category of "drabble". And since this anthology is one of short fic...yeah. Hope you enjoy, lovelies._

**Bewildering Bodily Changes Take Place…**

**Part I**

Yuki Cross, just recently thirteen years old. Up until now, she had never been so shocked in her life. Not when she had nearly been attacked and slaughtered by an insane vampire. Not when Zero Kiryu, bloody and sullen, had shown up on her doorstep. Not even when said Zero, in one of his more sadistic moments, had "accidentally" dropped her favorite, most beloved photograph of Kaname-sama in the garbage disposal.

She had been watching one of her dear comedy sketches, Zero on the couch beside her reading a magazine. As she had been up until then guzzling about a quart of soda straight out of the plastic bottle, she had jumped cheerily up to head to the bathroom and do her business. She had proceeded to do this business, and it was only now, skirt down around her ankles, behind sticking to the cold porcelain, that the greatest shock of her lifetime had come to her.

If you are a female, or if you have ever had a daughter, you will quickly discern what had sent dear Yuki-chan careening off the cliff of Horror and into the abyss of WTH?

Her soft, rosy complexion having washed to the color of paste, her mouth agape, Yuki peered into the bowl of the toilet and wondered faintly if she was dying. Surely, surely…_that_…wasn't supposed to come out of…_there._

There was a long stretch of silence. And then, a keening wail of despair, the likes of which banshees would envy.

Zero, jarred by the piercing cry that seemed to originate from the bathroom that Yuki had just moments ago skipped into, leapt to his feet, the magazine he had been perusing landing with a plat. What could have happened?

"Yuki?" he exclaimed, pumping his thin legs and using all of his store of athleticism. Skidding on the carpeting that lined the hall, Zero scrambled for the knob of the bathroom, wrenched the door open, and-

Faced, much to his contrition, a teary-eyed Yuki crouched on the toilet.

Ivory skin flushing to the roots of his moonlit hair, Zero rushed out, "Sorry!" and slammed the door back shut. Bracing his back against the wood, Zero slowly slid until his butt made contact with the floor. In all likelihood, he would be traumatized for life.

Being a fourteen year old boy, there was no denying that Zero had, er, certain…fantasies. However, none of them entailed the object of his secret, resentful adoration perched on a toilet, blubbering her pretty eyes out.

"Zero!" Yuki screeched from inside the bathroom, and Zero braced himself to be chewed out, face still steaming hot enough to grill an egg on. But silence fell once more, and Zero had to strain his ears to make out the next, thready whisper, "I…I think I'm dying…"

"Huh?" Irritation at her dramatic tendencies jerked him out of his stew of humiliation. Pushing himself into a straighter sitting position, Zero spoke to the shut door. "What the heck do you mean, 'you're dying'?"

"There's…there's…blood…and…it's…"

"Stop right there!" Zero rushed out, his blush returning as he realized where this was going. He'd taken health class. He knew the score. But, unfortunately, Yuki had never taken that class, and it would seem that the Headmaster had yet to give his dear adopted daughter "The Talk".

"I'm going to kill that man," Zero growled, running a hand down his face. "Hold on a minute, Yuki," he told the bathroom door, which was mockingly pure and blank. "The Headmaster's in a meeting, but I'm going to call him, okay?" Because God in heaven knew that Zero had absolutely no clue as to what to do about Yuki's little _problem._

One thing was for certain. Zero was going to yell into that phone until the Headmaster's ears rang from it.

_**Half an hour later~**_

Yuki emerged from the confines of the bathrooms, eyes still brimming, tear tracks drying in salty trails down her rounded cheeks. She was noticeably paler, save for the spots of color high on her cheeks. Zero had, per the Headmaster's instruction, nudged open the door and slid the phone across the floor to Yuki. She had gradually calmed as the Headmaster instructed her about what to do. Following his instructions, instructions that involved toilet paper and him stopping at a drugstore on his way home, Yuki had calmly set down the phone and did as her adopted father had bid her.

Now, however, with the full implications of her situation, and the sure knowledge that Zero knew exactly what had taken place, Yuki could only stew in embarrassment and bemoan the bloated feeling that had taken up residence in her abdomen.

Zero was slumped on the couch as if nothing had happened, the magazine held high so as to obscure his narrow, angular features. In the last year, his cheekbones had sharpened, face lengthening a bit. He was still gangly and not particularly tall for a boy, but Yuki could have sworn that his shoulders were broadening just a little. Perhaps, perhaps not.

But the state of Zero's shoulders and any concern over them was subverted by the almost comically horrible situation at hand.

"Ah…" Yuki struggled to find something, anything to say. The situation was so utterly awkward that the air itself was heavy. What did one say in situations such as this? What did one say when a young boy who was, for all intents and purposes, one's brother, discover one…

Ack. A deeper blush set in.

"The Headmaster will be home in a few moments," she managed. And, see, she accomplished the difficult task of not choking on air. Good one.

"Fine." Zero's voice was stiff. The magazine, grasped between his long fingers, shook the littlest of bits, glossy paper crumpling. He was more tense than a guilty prisoner on the executioner's block.

The awkward silence stretched on and on. Yuki thought she would go mad from it, but, like a gift sent from heaven, keys rattled in and the door pushed open. Audibly gasping with relief, Yuki scrambled to the door, attacking the Headmaster in a rare hug.

"Yuki, darling," the man gushed, glowing with his daughter's attention. He hefted a rattling plastic bag, grinning. "I brought you you're, ah…" Catching sight of the rigor mortis Zero, the older, be speckled man finished, "Candy."

Pasting on a parody of a grin, Yuki snatched the bag from her idiotic adopted father and gritted, "Thank you, Father, for the _candy." _With that, she turned on her dainty heel, stormed out to the hall, and slammed into the bathroom.

"By the way, Zero," the Headmaster spoke to the youth who had just visibly relaxed upon the exiting of the tiny brunette girl. The boy had slumped, the magazine falling into his lap as his hands went limp.

"Yeah-" Zero asked, voice cracking. Darn it, his voice had been pulling that more and more of late. Clearing his throat, he tried again, "Yeah?"

"I noticed that Yuki's growing up a little, Zero," the Headmaster fretted. "At this rate, she's going to need…" The man trailed off, hand cupped around his pointed chin in deep thought. At his brightening look, Zero could clearly picture a light bulb going off over his head.

"I've got an idea," the man said, and his voice was so pleasant and carefree that Zero automatically pushed himself further back against the couch, as if the cushions would take mercy on him and swallow him up. "Zero, I'll be busy tomorrow, but I think that you can take Yuki shopping."

Poor Zero's stomach was doing the slow drop of a malfunctioning elevator. He knew he would regret to heaven and back what he was about to ask, but… "Shopping for what?" Zero queried reluctantly.

The Headmaster beamed. "Zero, I'd be eternally grateful if you helped Yuki shop for big girl underwear."

A metaphorical boulder, which had up until now had been hovering over Zero's head, smashed down with enough mental force to rattle Zero's bones.

_I knew that I'd regret asking._

**To be continued and concluded in Part II**


	11. Bewildering Bodily Changes II

_Thanks for the reviews, guys and gals! I really appreciate them. Well, here's the second and last part to the embarrassing puberty episode. Following this will be several more stories published together. I've got lots of ideas, some fluffy, some mildly angsty, and hopefully, all enjoyable for you. Tah for now, and please enjoy..._

**Bewildering Bodily Changes Take Place…**

**Part II**

Zero had thought he had already faced the most embarrassing situation in his life earlier that day, when he had answered a distressed cry from Yuki Cross; subsequently finding her sobbing on the toilet. It had not taken a genius to deduce what the heck had been going on. Zero, blushing so hard that his ivory skin had glowed like a Stop Sign, had called the Headmaster, their adopted father, and figured that that was that as far as his participation in terms of Yuki Puberty.

Oh, how wrong he had been.

The Stop Sign blush had returned. Zero slumped in the "big girl underwear" aisle beside Yuki, surreptitiously glancing around to see whether or not one of his classmates was laughing their butt off in convenient corner. Thankfully, luck had not entirely abandoned him, as the only bystanders were middle aged women and young girls Yuki's age. None of them he recognized.

_There is a God._

But all was not well. For one thing, Zero was still suffering the after affects of mortification that had set up shop when he had stumbled upon Yuki. Clearly, the brunette thirteen year old felt the same, for she, browsing through frilly racks of "big girl underwear", would not meet his eyes. Under normal circumstances, Yuki was ecstatic at the prospect of spending time with her foster brother.

Not in this case. No, not by a long shot.

Face steaming, Zero averted his lilac eyes, and his attention was caught by a particularly curvaceous mannequin across the way, one that was wearing, er…"big girl underwear". Now, that was interesting. Perhaps this would not be so horrific, after all.

Yuki was nowhere near shaped like that. And while he had a vain hope that she would one day transform into a bombshell, he sincerely doubted the likelihood of such a miracle. But her slim delicacy, something almost fey, really, had charms of their own. Yes, she was quite pretty in a skinny waif sort of way. Of their own accord, Zero's large eyes slid back to Yuki-and snapped away once more when they caught sight of her frowning and holding a lacy bit of nothing up to her face.

Not meeting her eyes, Zero snatched that offending garment away from Yuki and shoved it back among its comrades. "Baka!" he hissed. "You can't wear something like that!"

Yuki tilted her head to the side, her stream of waist length hair sliding with the movement. The twit was honestly puzzled. "Why not?"

"Because…because! It…isn't appropriate for thirteen year old little girls!"

"What about this?" she asked, and lifted another scrap of silk with holes in some very strategic and not to mention inappropriate places.

His blood temperature was nearing a place that it most certainly shouldn't. "Put that back!" Shoving aside his contrition, Zero began to paw through the rack until he surfaced with a garment that covered just about everything it was meant to. Decorated with pink ducklings, it was deemed appropriate by the fourteen year old boy.

"Here!" he shoved it into her hands.

"Oh, this is cute," Yuki gushed, moving to throw her arms around the stiffened youth, who neatly sidestepped the embrace. As he was wont to do when feeling particularly antisocial or embarrassed. His cheeks were suffused with red once more.

"But…" Yuki frowned at the tag attached to the garment, chestnut brows knotting and forming furrows in her creamy skin. "What do these letters and numbers mean?"

Taking in the sight of the extremely low number and the set of "A"s, Zero stared pointedly at Yuki's painfully flat chest. "You'll fit into it, no problem," he said, placing his hands firmly on her shoulder blades and steering her to the dressing booths. Throwing the "big girl underwear" at Yuki and clicking the door shut on her confused countenance, Zero flopped into a nearby chair that had been placed for the convenience of those accompanying the changers.

He let out a shuddering sigh, one the wracked his skinny frame with tremors. He could not take much more of this. His blood pressure simply could not take it.

Flexing his hands, Zero contemplated the play of muscles beneath his translucent skin. He was still skinny, scrawny almost, and not as tall as he would like to be. But he was strong, and growing stronger. And more, and more, his positively irritating feelings for Yuki were growing. She was becoming a distraction of the worst sort. When he should be concentrating on exercising, or reading, her sweet, heart shaped face came to mind. And more, and even more, he thought of her pink, soft lips. He could recall, from the few times she had kissed him on his cheek, that they were heavenly soft, softer than lamb's wool, and silky. What would it be like, he thought with a slight churning of his blood, to kiss-

"Zero?" the tentative hailing came from within the confines of Yuki's changing booth. Her voice warbled with uncertainty.

Sighing, Zero heaved himself to his feet and trudged over to the changing booth. Feeling like a fool, he grumbled, "What, Yuki?"

"Um…"

"Spit it out," he ordered with no small touch of impatience.

A long beat of hesitance.

"Well…I don't know how to put it on."

Zero's forehead made cracking contact with the door of the booth. The pain, however, could not compete with the splitting migraine that had taken up permanent residence in Zero's frontal lobe.

Zero had thought to himself earlier all of the painful things he wanted to do to the Headmaster for putting them in this horrific situation. The machinations returned with a vengeance.

_I really am going to kill that man._

**Bewildering Bodily Changes Take Place…/End**


	12. ChristmasHoliday Special!

_Yes, I gave into cliches and wrote a Christmas special. Hey, why not? Blame the coffee and M&Ms Thanks to my wonderful readers for having patience with me! I love you all!_

_Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope that you enjoy this short sweet fluff piece! Be safe this holiday season and go easy on the eggnog, kay? Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! The next story in this anthology is tentatively titled "Various Disasters of the Domestic Variety" (nooo, I'm not even close to finished with this anthology...not even...oh, definately not...) Look forward to it. Please review and such. Thanksies. _

_**Disclaimer:** I own neither Vampire Knight nor "All I Want For Christmas Is You", although I do adore both. _

* * *

"**Stomping the Roses"**

**Christmas Special:**

**All I Want For Christmas Is You**

"_Yuki_." Zero sighed and broke the news to his foster sister for what felt like oh, say, the umpteenth time. "There is no such thing as Santa Claus."

Yuki Cross's rosebud of a mouth was set in a thin, stubborn line. Her hands were planted on her nonexistent hips, and her chin was raised mutinously. "How do you know?" she challenged. Always the same old argument-was this girl really thirteen? Or was she five?

"Because." Zero sat up straighter in his bedroom's armchair. "_Because_, it is physically impossible for a diabetic fat white man in a red suit to travel the entire world over in a single night, delivering thousands if not millions of presents in a single bag, and squeezing his said fat self down chimneys no wider than _you_ are."

Yuki's chocolate eyes narrowed. "It doesn't need to be _physically_ possible. Santa is _magic_."

Yeah. She was definitely five. Tall for a five year old, but not that all for her actual age. Not that he had the right to talk; he was an entire year older than her, but they were still about the same height. As scrawny as he was, he would never be able to protect her.

The depression that this thought set off in him brought a hard bite to his voice. "Listen, Yuki, even if it were possible for any of the above to take place, do you honestly want a creepy fat foreigner shimmying down our chimney and giving you presents? He could be a pervert."

"Santa's delivered us presents before." Yuki's voice was firm with her belief in her delusion. "And he isn't a pervert."

"That wasn't Santa," Zero said dryly. "That was Headmaster Cross in a red suit with a pillow shoved down the jacket to make him look fat."

"It was _not_ Headmaster!" Yuki stomped her Mary Jane-clad foot.

Okay, this branch of the conversation was going absolutely nowhere. Zero rubbed a thumb between his thick silvery brows. "We aren't even Christian, Yuki. Besides which, this Jesus guy wasn't even born on Christmas."

"He wasn't?" Yuki's look went from mutinous to curious. Sadly for his state of mind, she looked unbearably cute either way.

"No. He was born sometime in the spring. Christmas was originally a pagan holiday-the Winter Solstice. Do you know what Christmas trees and wreaths actually represent? They represent-" Zero immediately cut himself off, his fair complexion flushing to the color of holly berries.

Now her curiosity was _definitely_ piqued. "What do they represent, Zero?"

"Nothing!" Zero grabbed a random book and dived behind it, not actually reading any of the tiny print. "Absolutely nothing! They're just plants! Now go away!"

Yuki's tiny fingers curled around the top of the book and pushed it down. "You're reading it upside down, Zero."

"Grawr! Just go away already!"

_**The next morning-**_

The fat conifer took up an entire corner of the Cross residence's living room; it was a rich, dark green, and the brightly colored ornaments-quite a few of which were handmade by Yuki-stood out like jewels laid out on green velvet. The scent of pine hadn't abated during the two weeks that the tree had stood there.

Nestled under the tree was a large pile of colorfully wrapped presents. Yuki pointed at them and exclaimed in triumph, "Told you, Zero! Santa visited us."

Yuki had woken him at five a.m. by jumping onto his chest like a benevolent nightmare and shaking him vigorously. He had yelled at her until she'd cried. Clearly the girl had recovered. Now on top of feeling groggy as anything, he was developing a stomach ache.

"I told you before, Yuki. Headmaster bought all of those."

Headmaster Cross put his hands behind his back and whistled. He couldn't have looked more suspicious if he had been wearing a long leather trench coat.

In her teddy-bear patterned pajamas, Yuki dived for the presents and tore paper off a package wrapped in paper that declared "nice" in a large candy-cane letters. "C'mon, Zero! A lot of these presents are for you!"

Cross grinned and hefted a camera.

Grumbling, Zero decided to go along with it. Perhaps that way the migraine wouldn't be so severe.

A good two hours later, Zero lay flat on his back amongst gifts and shredded gift wrap. Headmaster Cross was down the hall in the kitchen; the scent of burnt gingerbread floated into the living room along with the sound of Headmaster whistling to some American Christmas pop song. The song would be stuck in Zero's throbbing head all day; he knew it.

_Jeez_.

He cracked open his eyelids when something green- and spicy-smelling tickled his nostrils. He sneezed copiously and brushed the offending object away.

Yuki was grinning sweetly down at him, and he thought, _Oh, well, I guess this whole business was kinda worth it._

"What's that?" he asked grumpily instead of voicing his brief flare of contentment.

"Mistletoe, silly," Yuki giggled, and kissed Zero lightly on one cheek, then the other, her lips feeling like velvet. She flopped down beside Zero, curled her frail body around his, and was out like a light in less than five seconds.

"That's what you get for waking up at five freaking a.m., stupid," Zero grumbled, blushing bright red in spite of himself. He trailed a hand over the spray of Yuki's long brown hair and kissed her forehead.

Yeah. Definitely worth it.

"_I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know. Make my wish come true…All I want for Christmas is…you."_

**All I Want For Christmas Is You/End**


	13. Various Disasters

_A/N: I can only explain myself by saying that senior projects are a bitch, and that they cut time out of fanfic writing. But I'm done with that exercise in misery, and I've gotten into the college I want (wahoo!) so I'm going to be updating regularly throughout the summer. Swear to Mother of God! Also, for those of you reading Sweet Dream, that is also going to be updated next week, so please have patience with me. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the following drabble that is so sweet, it tastes like diabetes. Nothing very exciting, but I hope it amuses you while you wait for my other stuff. :/_

_Love you all ~ Night _

_Note: Slightly edited. Thank you, __**Nessie-san**__, for pointing out that the use of "baka" doesn't make sense when there is a literal English translation. ;)_

**Various Disasters of the Domestic Variety**

Whoever said that "anything was possible" had obviously never tried to get Zero Kiryu out of bed for a round of spring cleaning. Had that been the case, said person may have been compelled to revise their hasty statement.

His thirteen-year-old foster sister, Yuki Cross, stood outside of his bolted door, fuming. Her tiny fists were propped akimbo on hips that showed no signs of maturing any time soon, in spite of her recent…err…welcome-to-puberty surprise. Her fair skin flushed the color of fresh strawberries at the memory of her foster sibling discovering her in a compromising position on the toilet.

Humiliating memories aside, she had a mission in mind, and she would not allow distractions to get in the way. This might be difficult, considering that Yuki's pediatrician had wanted to get her tested for Attention Deficit Disorder.

Yuki sighed and tapped her knuckles lightly against her left temple. See, she was _already_ getting distracted. Her thoughts tended to float off in all directions at times, like a balloon that had had its string cut by a troublesome child. Her adoptive father, Headmaster Cross, said it was because she had a fertile imagination. Zero was on the aforementioned pediatrician's side and said it was because Yuki had a bad case of ADD.

But whatever. She had a MISSION. She even thought of the word in all capital letters; somehow that lent further importance to what she was attempting. The Headmaster was out on another of his errands, it was nearly time for Spring Break, and she was going to make the Headmaster's day by getting all of his spring cleaning down _now_.

Clearing her throat with an officious "A-HEM!", Yuki proclaimed loudly, so her dulcet voice would carry through the thick oak of Zero's door, "I know you're awake, Zero. Headmaster asked us to take care of the spring cleaning while he was out. We can't just skimp on the responsibility he entrusted us with."

Silence.

"Don't pretend to be asleep," she said sternly. "I know you're awake. If you were asleep, you'd be snoring."

An indignant stretch of silence. Then, "I do NOT snore!"

Yuki's small but full lips curled in a smirk. _Gotcha,_ she thought.

"If you're awake," she went on, this time more sweetly, "then why waste time lounging around in bed when we have cleaning to do."

"You have cleaning to do," her foster brother's voice drifted harshly from within the room that was locked tighter than Pandora's box. "You're the girl. It's your job."

Yuki adopted an expression similar to one who had just sucked on a particularly sour lemon. "You cook," she said tightly, "when Headmaster isn't here. Isn't that a _domestic_ duty?"

An audible snort. "I only cook because, the last time you were let near the stove, you set off the smoke alarm."

"That was-" Yuki cut herself off and shrugged. No point in arguing over that (embarrassing) incident. Zero would not be moved on his estimation of her cooking abilities, or rather lack thereof.

Shaking her head back and forth to herself, Yuki decided that it was time to resort to Plan B. If her foster sibling had one weakness, it was his inability to deny people (particularly young, female people) in need. Her lips curled on a smile so evil that said foster sibling would be shocked to see it twist her delicate, innocent features.

"Zero," she said in a softly pleading tone of voice, "I really need your help. Spring cleaning can get rigorous, and you know that I'm not nearly as strong as you are." A long beat of silence. "Please," she said softly. "Zero, I really need you." She folded her arms and waited for him to take the damsel-in-distress bait.

Five seconds later, the various locks and latches on his door flipped, and his ruffled countenance greeted her.

Hook, line, sinker.

Twenty-five minutes later, Yuki's long trail of softly waving chestnut hair was bound back with a kerchief; her pants were rolled up and tied at the knees, and her long sleeves were bunched up at the elbows. Zero had refused to don a kerchief (she did not understand why; he would look quite fetching in one) but his pants and sleeves were rolled up so as to not spill cleaning products on the hems.

"Okay!" Yuki said in a peppy voice, shoving a knobby broom into his slack hands. "You start with the kitchen, and I'll dust the shelves in the living room!"

"Aren't you a bit short for that?"

She stuck her small kittenish pink tongue out at him. "I have step ladder, stupid. So, um, after that, we'll take out the rugs and beat them…"

"I'm certainly in the mood to beat _something_," Zero grumbled to himself, "and it isn't a rug."

"…and once we're done with that," Yuki was going on, oblivious to her best friend's homicidal thoughts, "we'll throw the beans to banish the evil spirits!"

"Beans?" Zero queried with a grunt. "Won't that just make a mess all over again?" Zero was the decisively more pragmatic half of the duo.

"Hush up!" the small girl admonished him, whacking his bony shoulder with her feather duster. "The beans are an important part of spring cleaning! How else would we banish the bad spirits so we can have a fresh start?"

"Call in an exorcist?" Zero dead-panned.

"But we aren't Catholic." Yuki's eyes were wide and confused.

"I KNOW that…never mind. Let's get this over with," he mumbled, shuffling with his broom and pan off to the kitchen.

Yuki pursed her lips and frowned after her friend. Shrugging at this apathy and refusal to ever become enthusiastic over _anything_ accept death and destruction, she turned on her heel and got to the task at hand. He didn't want to have fun with her? Fine. At least his participation cut her work load in half, she thought darkly. Of course it would be too much to hope for anything more than duty when it came to Zero Kiryu.

Setting the duster aside, Yuki clamped her hands around a very heavy wooden step ladder and dragged it, crab-walking, over to one of the Headmaster's high shelves of knick-knacks and crockery. Yuki quite frankly saw no point in fancy porcelain plates that one wasn't even allowed to eat off of; nor did she see the appeal in statues of fat little children with disproportionally sized heads and invisible mouths. What she did know was, if she were to break a single one of the useless breakables, it would come out of her pocket money.

Grimacing, Yuki mounted the stool, panting slightly from the exertion (she really needed to become more athletic, she really did). Even on the stool, she still had to strain up on her toes in order to see all the way to the back of the shelf. She grimaced anew at the sight of dust so thick that it formed a thick gunk on the varnished wood.

"Blech," she said to herself, and proceeded to gingerly swipe the duster around the brick-a-brack. "Blech, blech, blech…darn it," she mumbled when she couldn't quite reach that one last corner in the back. She strained up on the very tips of her toes, practically contorted her arm…and still could not reach the darn corner. She mumbled a few choice words that did not bear repeating—and really, truly swore hard enough to make Zero proud and Kaname flinch, when her elbow bumped into one of the chibi figurines.

The figurine tottered, swiveled in place—and before her butter fingers could properly grasp it, fell off the shelf. She made a small shrieking noise and dived for it, belatedly realizing that such an action would send _her_ careening to the floor.

"Idiot!" someone exclaimed harshly. There was the flashing sensation of vertigo, a swooshing of displaced air—and she landed on a relatively soft object that gasped out a breath upon impact.

"Idiot," Zero groaned again from beneath her. His prone form had come between her and the floor at the very last second, and he had taken the brunt of the fall. They would both have bruises, but at least neither of them had broken their slender necks.

And…cupped In Zero's long hand was that troublesome figurine.

"Zero!" Yuki exclaimed, lifting her torso and kissing him soundly on his cheek. "You saved the knick-knack!"

He grunted and blushed, not meeting her eyes. "Yeah," he said sarcastically, because I rushed in here for fear that the _statue_ would break its neck."

"I was afraid that Headmaster would take it out of my pocket money!" She squeezed him so tightly that his swiftly forming bruises ached.

"You idiot! You should be more concerned about your spinal cord and less concerned with an ugly little chibi statue—"

She leapt off of him and scrambled towards the kitchen. "It must have been the evil spirits that caused me to fall! Quick! We need those beans!"

"Idiot," Zero mumble from his prone position on the floor. Maybe he wouldn't get up for…a while.

**Various Disasters of the Domestic Variety/End**

A/N: Yes, in case you weren't aware, the Japanese have spring cleaning, although it's more about cleaning up spiritually; hence the bean throwing (they really do throw beans). And, also yes, the "chibi figurine" was a Precious Moments figurine. I hate those dang things.


	14. I Don't Believe in Fairy Tales

_A/N: Why update this, you may wonder? Why not update your longer, lemon-y, serious Zero/Yuki story? To be frank, I'm out of good ideas for that one, and I don't want to waste anyone else's time if I myself cannot stand a story. I really…don't like SDOBN right now, so you'll have to content yourself with this. On the plus side, I DO have an idea and basic plot outlined for another Zero/Yuki story that I'm putting on hold until I finish my OTHER long-running fic…this will hopefully happen soon. Meanwhile, please enjoy this mindless fluff. Feel free to comment, critique, etc., but if you flame, I will use the flame as a focal point for cursing you. My ancestors were Druids. You've been warned. _

_P.S.-If you'd like a soundtrack to go along with this fic, I recommend Natalia Kill's "Wonderland", as well as the Beatle's "I Want to Hold Your Hand". ;)_

_P.S.S- Extra thanks to **Nessie-san** for her advice. I went back and fixed the last chapter's mistakes to the best of my ability. Also, if anyone out there wants to beta-read for me, I'm all for it. XD Also dedicated to my darling reader **abiecula**. _

**I Don't Believe in Fairy Tales**

"_Yuki_." The young boy's voice was a protracted groan. "_What_ are you doing?"

The sloe-eyed teenager's features shifted into a mask of bewilderment. God, she really had no idea how…odd she looked in that get-up.

"Whatever do you mean?" she inquired. She pursed the small bud of her mouth at him.

"I mean—" H waved a hand at her current…outfit…struggling not to wince at its sheer absurdity. "_Why_ are you wearing…_that_?"

Yuki pinched a fold of the heavy wine-colored cloak between her slender index finger and thumb; the scratchy, worn velvet caught on the whorls of her finger pads. She stared at it contemplatively, seemingly lost in thought.

Zero tapped his foot, scratched his head so his silvery hair stood up in spikes, and took several long breaths. By the fifth breath, his patience quota was thoroughly used up. He cleared his throat. Loudly.

She jumped a little and stared at him accusingly for startling her. _Oh, right_, he thought with a roll of his eyes, _like it's my fault that your brain is in outer space half the_ _darn time._

"I'll repeat myself," he said in what he hoped was a patient tone. His voice cracked, and he was forced to clear it before reiterating. "Why are you wearing…that?"

Once again, his foster sister blinked down at her outfit. The heavy red cloak brushed the floor—she'd pilfered it from the Headmaster's closet, and god knew why that strange man owned such an article of clothing—and beneath it she wore one of her own dresses. It was white and frilly with pale red checks. Zero thought uncharitably that it looked as if one had decided to salvage an old picnic blanket by sewing it into a dress. But, he had to admit in the very corner of his mind that Yuki looked rather…cute.

A little whicker basket was nestled in the crook of her arm. He couldn't be certain as to it's contents—a little hand towel decorated with a pattern of yellow ducks was folded over the opening.

"Isn't it obvious, silly?" she asked him brightly, thankfully not caught up in another one of her dazes.

"No. If it were obvious, I wouldn't be asking you _what_ you're doing. Are you…playing dress-up or something? Yuki, you're _thirteen_."

"Yeah, so?"

"Don't you think that dress-up is a little…juvenile?"

Yuki gasped in outrage, swinging her whicker basket at him and clipping him on the shoulder. "I am _not_ a juvenile delinquent! _You_ are, with your tattoo and your hoodlum-like piercings-"

"That's not what I said—ugh, what I mean is, aren't you too old for dress-up?"

Yuki threw her head back, tilting her nose and tossing her long sheet of hair. "I'm a _princess_," she said haughtily.

"No," Zero dead-panned, settling back on the living room sofa, "you aren't."

"Yes I am! Even my name says so! 'Yuki' means 'tender princess." She spoke slowly and loudly, as if he had some sort of hearing difficulty.

He rolled his eyes yet again—at this rate, they were going to be stuck that way. "That doesn't make you a princess, stupid. And anyway, I was referring to your silly little outfit." Another wave of his hand.

"What about it?"

"You're supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood, right?" Goodness knew that his foster sibling subjected him to enough cartoon-adaptations of Grimm tales for him to recognize the cloak and basket.

"Yes!" she enthused, clapping her hands as if he were a slow student that had just experience a stroke of genius. "How'd you know?"

"I'm psychic." His tone held its usual indifference. "Anyway, I hate to burst your bubble, but Red Riding Hood isn't a princess."

She squinted at him, thick lashes veiling the expression in her chocolate eyes. But her tiny mouth had pinched and cinched itself into a thin line.

"How d'you know?" she challenged. The whicker basket began to shake. Oh, no. Was she going to hit him with that thing again?

"Red Riding Hood was a peasant's daughter. Would a real princess wander around in the forest where wolves could eat her?"

"_Snow White_! Snow White was in a forest! That's how she met the dwarves." Yuki jabbed a triumphant finger at him, gloating. At least she didn't look like she was preparing to pitch the basket at his head.

"Snow White was running away from a crazy guy who wanted to cut out her heart and give it to a mad old woman with self-confidence issues."

"Nuh-uh! The huntsman saved her! He told her to run!"

"Not in the original version. What, do you trust Disney movies or something?"

"But…but…" Oh, no, those wide eyes were taking on a layer of tears. "But fairy tales are supposed to be happy!"

"Not necessarily. Like, in the original 'Sleeping Beauty', the guy who kissed the princess awake left his wife for her. And then he killed Sleeping Beauty's babies. Or maybe his ex-wife's babies? I'm not quite sure." Really, he was just making things worse, but he had a near undeniable impulse to spread knowledge. _That's what happens when you're a nerd_, he thought dryly.

The wide brown pools of her eyes were looking shinier and shinier by the moment. "Zero! Why do you have to ruin everything?"

Yeah. Why did he insist upon raining on her peppy-parade at every opportunity? Was it because he cared about her and didn't want her naiveté to be her downfall? Or was he simply jealous-jealous of her innocent childhood that was free of any traumatizing experience—save for that winter's night long ago, a snowy night stained with the blood of a slain vampire?

But he'd seen blood, too—buckets worth of it, on the night his family was massacred by _that woman_. His own life was tainted; why should he spread the stain to his dear one?

Well…Yuki wasn't exactly a genius. If he told her a lie with a completely straight face, there was little doubt that she wouldn't swallow it like it was fresh takoyaki.

"I lied," he said with a shrug, carefully making eye contact so she would have no reason to doubt him. "I just wanted to tease you."

"Oh, you-!" Yuki made as if to whack him once more with the basket, but she was too delighted and relieved to follow through with the motion. "You're always teasing me, Zero."

He shrugged with an uneven jerk of his shoulders. "I just don't get why you're so obsessed with this princess junk."

The smile that she bestowed upon him was a miracle to behold—all melting sweetness, turning her passably pretty face into a work of beauty.

"Because I'm the princess, and you're my knight. We'll always be there to rescue each other."

Zero didn't know whether to blush or vomit at the sheer cheesiness of her declaration. He did neither, instead grumbling, "God, don't say sweet junk like that. You'll give me a toothache."

"C'mon," she said, grabbing his hand and yanking him up from the couch. "I've got some wolf ears that you can wear. You'll be my Big Bad Wolf Knight."

"You're mixing up fairy tales again," he informed her, allowing her to drag him off to be played with like some sort of dress-up doll.

"Be quiet!"

**I Don't Believe in Fairy Tales/End**

_A/N: Well, did you get a toothache? Remember that writers like reviews! Thank you for taking the time to read this humble drabble. Don't worry…I am nowhere near out of ideas when it comes to the Zeki childhood head-cannon. ;)_

_~Night_


	15. The White Lily

_A/N: So am I the only VK fan who never wondered about the details as to how Zero met his mad horse, White Lily? Here is my head-canon take on that, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Less heavy on the Zeki, more heavy on A Boy and His Dog—err, that is to say, Horse. Don't worry—the next story to come is so full of Zeki-induced warm-and-fuzzies that you might vomit from the sweetness. So enjoy. And thank you for the reads and reviews. Would you mind reviewing again, lovelies? I always welcome feedback. _

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Vampire Knight. Do I even have to state that obvious fact? Trust me, if I did, Zero would spend a lot more time divested of clothing._

* * *

**The White Lily**

"Zero." The Headmaster was doing his very best to look stern. Considering that his current outfit consisted of a neon-pink kimono, teddy bear-shaped earmuffs, and literally rose colored glasses, he didn't quite succeed. "_Zero_. Just _what_ were you thinking?"

Zero Kiryu decided that he might as well be honest with his foster father—he was already ankle deep in it. Why not deliberately sink into it up to his amethyst eyeballs?

"I was thinking that a stampede of horses would scare the crap out of Tachibana and his flunkies. Sir," he added as an afterthought.

"Don't get sassy with me, young man." Grooves formed between Cross's arched eyebrows as he frowned. "You're almost fifteen Zero, not five. Do you really think that there's an excuse for such behavior at your age?"

"With all due respect—" _Yeah, right _"—Headmaster, I've already been held back once due to my irresponsible behavior. Do you really expect more of me?" Zero cocked his head to the side, shaggy hair sliding forward to obscure his calculating eyes. He was honestly curious to hear the Headmaster's response.

Cross sighed heavily, sat back in his chair, and shoved his glasses up in order to rub at his eyes. "Yes, Zero," he said finally. "I do expect better from you. You're a bright, mature young man. Zero, _why_ would you do this? The stable boys—not to mention your physical education teacher—were in a panic."

The reason that Zero had set loose two randy, aggressive stallions, three spirited mares, and one very confused, very large gelding, was a simple one. Revenge. Revenge was something that Zero understood very well. Some days, it was all that kept him breathing, eating, functioning. Living.

But the Stable Incident, as Zero was mentally calling it, had been for the sake of a lesser act of vengeance. Tachibana, the fat, pale twerp, had been harassing—backed up by his portable peanut gallery, of course—two of the few people that Zero actually _cared_ about. Tachibana had taunted Sayori Wakaba about the fiancée that she'd never met, and had sneered that her future husband would throw up at the sight of Sayori's "pale, scrawny" self. Zero personally found Sayori to be very pretty, in a quiet sort of way. Maybe, _maybe_ Zero would have forgiven Tachibana for teasing Sayori.

But then the little pig had turned his squinty eyes to _Yuki_.

"And what about _you_?" Tachibana had sneered as Zero watched, narrow eyed, from where he was helping a younger boy saddle his pony. "You're even _scrawnier_ and _uglier_ than Wakaba. You're thirteen, and you don't even have a chest. You'll never get a boyfriend—'cept maybe for that _freak_ Kiryu—"

"Don't talk about Zero!" Yuki shouted, red in the face, long brown hair practically bristling with her rage. "Just shut your fat mouth—you don't know anything about people like him! Kind, good people."

"Oooh." Tachibana made a kissy face, much to the amusement of his cronies. "Cross has a boyfriend. Or maybe a _girlfriend_—that guy _looks_ like a—"

He was cut off by Yuki's fist making brutal contact with his nose. Blood spurted and cartilage crunched.

"You little brat!" Tachibana clutched at his leaking nose, skin mottled purple, and pushed Yuki so hard that she fell over with a cry. Sayori made a dismayed sound and bent over the fallen brunette.

And then Zero's vision had filmed over red.

And _then_, Tachibana wound up face-down with a huge hoof-print on his fat butt.

_Too bad none of the horses stepped on his crotch_, Zero reflected now. Maybe that would have prevented the fat creep from tainting the world with his genetics.

"_Well?_" the Headmaster demanded. "Do you have anything to say? Going to explain yourself?"

Chin tilting fractionally, Zero shook his head.

Cross slumped back in his huge desk chair. "Fine," he said on a gusty sigh. "Be stubborn." His eyes went flinty behind those silly glasses. "And let the punishment befit the crime."

_**The next afternoon~**_

"So you're the young scamp who let six of my horses loose." The craggy old stable master planted his big hands on once-lean hips that had thickened with age. His expression was stern, but Zero swore that he saw a twinkle, of all things, in the old man's small eyes.

"That would be me, sir," Zero said without any trace of irony.

"Humph," the old guy grunted. "Kiryu, is it?"

"Yes." A beat. "Sir."

"Well, Kiryu, you can call me Takahiro-senpai."

"Uh…you aren't my upperclassman," Zero felt compelled to inform the old guy.

"For the duration of your punishment, boy, I might as well be." Squint. "You sure you a boy? You're darn pretty."

"I'm male…sir." Zero's teeth were clenched. If he were just a little bit bigger, he would've knocked this geezer's dentures out. He needed to start lifting weights or something. And he needed to go back to downing those truly revolting protein drinks.

"If you say so. Hop to it, boy. We've got some crap to shovel."

"Joy," Zero said dryly, plodding after the surprisingly quick-on-his-feet old guy.

The stables, like always, smelled strongly of fresh hay and fresher horse poop. The peaceful sounds of horses shuffling about in their stalls filled his senses—and the peaceful moment was broken by a crash, a shrill scream—and a scrawny stable boy came crashing out of the stall at the very end of the left row.

"I'm done, do you hear me? Done!"

Zero watched, wide-eyed, as the young man fled the stables, cursing soundly.

"Uh?" Zero managed.

"It's the White Lily again," the stable master sighed.

"The who?"

"New foal that we just rescued. Mother died in a fire, and the poor thing has her own scars from it. You ever hear a horse scream, boy? It's the most blood-curdling sound on the planet, mostly because it sounds so much like a human's scream."

Zero liked to think of himself as jaded—but it _was_ a chilling thought.

"Anyway, she won't accept any of the mares that are currently nursing, and she nearly takes the hands off anyone who tries to nurse her by bottle—what in god's name are you doing, boy?"

Zero didn't reply; he was making his determined way down to that stall, where the sounds of a restless, snorting horse originated.

She was gorgeous, that young gangly thing. Truly gorgeous. Pure white, from the tip of her forelock to her long silky tail—he understood the reasoning behind her name. Perfectly formed, with sinewy muscles—and almost invisible white scars tracing the side of her belly.

And those eyes…god, those hurt, angry eyes. To have seen so much, at such a young age.

He could relate.

White Lily's eyes rolled in panicked rage as Zero entered the stable. She made as if to rear back.

"Shush." His hands remained loose at his sides, and he let her hear the compassion, the empathy in his quiet voice. "We've both seen unpleasant things, you and I. We both have," he repeated gently, edging the slightest bit closer when the horse began to relax.

He offered his hand, and instead of ripping it from its wrist, the horse sniffed it—and shoved her face into his stomach, whickering softly.

Kindred spirits, Zero thought in amusement.

Takahiro, for his part, was gaping like a fish out of water.

"Could you bring me a bottle?" Zero asked politely. "I want to try and nurse her."

Laughing almost hysterically, Takahiro nodded and went to comply. "You got a gift with the ladies or something, boy?"

Zero automatically thought of Yuki, blushed so hard that he felt dizzy, and shook his head. He traced his fingers through White Lily's silky mane of white.

"Kindred spirits, you and I," he whispered to the wild horse.

_**That evening~**_

"Zero, why are you sleeping in that stall? And, whoo, does it stink in here!"

"Ugh! Go _away_, Yuki!"

**The White Lily/End**


	16. The Brush of Moth

**The Brush of Moth's Wings**

"_I take your hand and hold it closer to mine._

_Thought love was dead,_

_But now you're changing my mind."_

_-Gym Class Heroes Feat. Adam Levine,_

"_Stereo Hearts"_

It was one of the most ridiculous situations that he had ever managed to get himself into. This was definitely saying something, because thanks to his foster sister, he'd been in his fair share of ludicrous situations over the past three and a half years.

"I am not," Zero said flatly, "taking part in this."

"Aw, Zero," the foster sister in question whined, "don't be such a buzz kill."

"I'll give you buzz kill." Zero felt his blood pressure begin to build. "I'll give you _buzz kill_ when I knock you over the head with that freaking bottle!"

"How come you two haven't killed each other yet?" Yuki's best friend after Zero, Sayori Wakaba, wondered aloud.

"I'm not sure," Zero and Yuki snapped acidly in unison, folding their thin arms and glowering at each other. Yuki stuck her tongue out in a childish gesture.

"C'mon, Kiryu," Ren Miyata cajoled, "it's your turn. At least _nudge _the bottle."

"_No_." Zero sounded distinctly childish. He didn't give a distinctive crap.

This whole exercise in the ridiculous had started when Yuki complained that she'd never had a sleepover. So, somehow, Yuki, Zero, and four of their friends (well, Yuki's friends) had ended up crouched on Headmaster Cross's living room floor in their pajamas.

The game of "spin the bottle" had been Miyata's idea. Apparently he'd picked it up from an American exchange student that had home-stayed at his house.

"Fine." Miyata shrugged. "I'll just take your turn."

Zero glared off into space, scratching absently at his flannel pajama pants.

Miyata reached forward and twirled the empty glass soda bottle. Everyone tracked it avidly as it spun, spun, spun…and landed…

Pointing towards Yuki.

Zero felt every one of his hackles rise.

_Oh, heck NO._

"I want my turn back," Zero abruptly snapped. The other young teenagers all blinked at him, and he could almost hear crickets chirping.

A slow burning blush worked its way from Zero's toes all the way up to his forehead.

Yuki was looking at him oddly. Miyata only snickered and shrugged.

_That scheming little-! He did that on purpose!_

"Well?" Sayori arched her brows over her owlish brown eyes.

"I'm-I'm not some shameless Westerner," Zero stammered, looking absolutely everywhere except for Yuki's face. "I'm not gonna…I'm not going to do it in front of people!"

So, somehow, he and Yuki had ended up pushed/dragged into a closet and locked inside. When Zero heard giggling and whispers on the other side, he banged his fist against the door. Or, what he assumed was the door, considering it was so dark in this musty, cramped space that he couldn't even see his own nose if he crossed his eyes and squinted. The air tasted like moth balls, and the place smelled like old leather.

"Um," Yuki managed. "Zero…"

"Don't get the wrong idea!" he hissed. "I just didn't want to see Miyata slobbering all over you." Yeah. Sure. Thank god it was so dark in here. She wouldn't be able to see his flushed face. "I figured it would be traumatizing for you or something."

"That was really…nice of you, Zero."

"Yeah," he scoffed. "Nice. I just figured that you'd want to save your 'sacred first kiss' for Kuran. I don't expect you to kiss me or anything. Wouldn't want you to get my cooties or something." He said the last bit quite viciously.

There was a protracted silence. Then she reached out her little hand and smacked him in the dead center of his chest.

"Ouch! What the heck-"

"You don't have to dirty your lips with my cooties. We'll just lie and said we kissed."

Zero made an aggravated sound and punched a coat that brushed his face. "Fine."

"_Fine_."

"_FINE."_

"Zero she said after a long stretch of silence filled with nothing save for the puff of breath and the brush of arms against fabric.

"What?" he snapped.

"How long do you think it'll be before they let us out?"

"How should I know what those sadistic little twerps are thinking? All I know is, if they don't let us out SOON, I'm gonna break down the door-" Zero had been making violent gestures while he spoke, and somehow got tangled up in the forest of wind breakers and coats. He yelped in a decisively unmanly matter and tripped.

"Ooph!" Yuki huffed out as she caught her flailing house mate in her arms. God, he'd gotten _heavy_. He was still pretty scrawny, but-yeah, it felt like his shoulders had gotten broader, and his chest, where it pressed to hers, was heavier. Had he been working out more? she wondered distantly. Trying to become a big bad vampire hunter? She'd tilted her head back in a vain attempt to get a look at this face. He'd gotten a few inches taller, too, so it almost put a strain on her neck to do so.

"Zero?" she asked when he didn't say anything, when he remained slack in her arms and when his weight was starting to become a burden. "Zero, are you-"

Something silky, dry and cool brushed her lips. Something firm and soft. Two somethings, actually. They were…lips? There was a brief instant when they pressed firmly to hers, and she felt dizzy-

And then they were gone, and Zero had moved away from her, and light was cutting in through the opening door.

She felt slightly dazed as the boys in the group made jeering noises and suggested stuff that made her blush. Zero made death threats until they cut it out.

She was looking at him in puzzlement as the group trooped back to the living room.

"Zero…"

"Sorry for bumping into you in there," Zero said shortly. His pale purple eyes with their rims of frost met hers head on, and in them she saw nothing more than the typical apathy and the vaguely (platonically) affectionate look that he got when he spoke to her.

_Stupid, _she thought harshly to herself, pinching her paled cheeks. _You're blowing things out of proportion, Yuki. Zero just bumped into you, that's all. He's your best friend, and best friends don't kiss._

Unbidden, her fingers reached up to trace her lips. They didn't feel any different. But back there, just for a second, they had almost…tingled. Was that a good feeling?

She shook her head so her brunette hair flew around her in a dark fan. _Silly. _Accidents happened. Zero was probably embarrassed as it was. No need for her to add to it by acting funny around him.

Right. She nodded to herself firmly. Never bring this up again. Easily done. Forcing a content, placid smile, she trooped back over to her friends.

She never saw the tiny, secretive smile on Zero's full lips.

"_My heart's a stereo, it beats for you so listen close…"_

**The Brush of Moth's Wings/End**


	17. The Warmth That Slipped from Her Palm

_**A/N**_: **First off, **I would like to profusely thank every single one of you lovelies who has read, reviewed, favorited, and subscribed to this humble collection of drabbles. I've been stressed out and generally pissed off lately, so seeing traffic stats and reading your insightful, kind reviews has really cheered me up! So this chapter is dedicated to all of you darlings.

**Also! Please read: **This chapter came about thanks to something that my darling reader **ladydeath07. **Sweets, I should have thought of this sooner, so thanks for giving me a clue. Ladydeath07 suggested that I revisit the "sick" side story. You know, when Yuki-chan got sick and Zero-the darling-was sitting outside of her room. She said that it would be a great way to explore their feelings. Thanks for the inspiration, my dear!

**IMPORTANT CRAP: **Because this is a chronological anthology (ie, following the two kids as they grow older) I decided to make this chapter a "flashback" with "bookends" at the start and end of the two crazy kids in the present. So, in the present they're fifteen and fourteen, respectively (going by my timeline) but in the flashback they're about ten and eleven. It's back to their early days! You know, before embarrassing things like puberty (we'll revisit embarrassing things like puberty in the next story ;)).

For those of you who like tunes to go with your stories, I listened to "Neon Black" by the Candy Coated Killahz, and "Whataya Want From Me" by Adam Lambert whilst writing this. :D If you want to know how I really captured the varying moods throughout, please listen to those songs.

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**The Warmth That Slipped from Her Palm, And…**

Zero grit his teeth and folded his lips together when Yuki jabbed another spoonful of murky green broth at his mouth. Apparently consuming the noxious substance would make him feel better. He'd been ill for almost four days, and he was getting behind in school for every day that he remained sick. Sure, Yuki had valiantly volunteered to take notes for him while he was ill-but, considering that it was _Yuki_ they were talking about, the notes were mediocre at best. He also could have done without the words "Mrs. Kaname Kuran" that were scribbled in the margins of the loose leaf pieces of paper.

_Speaking_ of becoming violently ill.

"Come on," Yuki cajoled, shifting the spoon around like she was planning to catch him off guard and shove the utensil into his mouth whilst he wasn't looking. "If you don't eat, you won't feel any better!" She'd perched her tiny butt on the side of his bed; the tray that held the soup and a rabbit's portion of rice was balanced on her lap, over her school skirt.

"I don't have an appetite," the fifteen year old boy rasped. He sounded like a sulky little boy. And when he sneezed into a crumpled tissue, the substance that came out of his nose was an extraordinarily disgusting color.

"I never have an appetite either, when I'm sick," the slight-figured brunette admitted. But her soft features were stern. "Even if you don't have an appetite, you need to eat! Whenever I'm sick, you're always pestering me about eating properly!"

That was because Yuki was the single most important person in Zero's life right now. When he'd come in from the cold, on that blood-stained winter's night, she had shown him nothing but compassion that was free of pity. She'd shown him empathy, because she knew what it was like to be abandoned, to have your family ripped from you by forces beyond your control. That she didn't remember her family was irrelevant. The two of them were kindred souls.

Even back when he barely spoke to her, he'd already been insanely loyal to her, like some sort of starving wolf cub that had been shown kindness by a passing human child. Even if he had not been vocal about it, he had felt a bone deep need to protect and look after his brown-haired savior…

_**Three and a half years ago…**_

The vampire had left.

That man…that…_creature_…truly made Zero sick to his very core. Zero could smell his rancid pure blood; a curse passed down to him by his vampire hunting ancestors. That pure, undiluted blood made Zero sick. Those dark, bottomless eyes, as cold and lifeless as the bottom of a swamp, made Zero even more sick.

But worse than any of that was the way the vampire looked at Yuki Cross. How could a monster such as that have its features suffuse with such tenderness, and yes, _love_, when he looked at the small girl? The unexpected proprietary feelings that Zero was beginning to develop towards the girl rankled at that.

He shook his head and _thunked_ it gently against the door outside of which he sat.

The stench lingered, here outside of Yuki's room, but Zero's worry for the girl trumped his distaste for vampire pheromones (or whatever the heck those things secreted from their pores). Zero had crawled out of hiding the minute that Kuran had exited Cross's residence, and had been cooling his heels outside of Yuki's room for a solid two hours now.

His butt had fallen asleep an hour and half ago.

His back had begun to feel stiff one hour ago.

His arms, where they were wrapped around his up-draw knees, had started to cramp exactly forty-five minutes and thirteen seconds ago.

And yet…

Here he was.

Zero frowned to himself, platinum eyebrows drawing down over his beautifully colored eyes. He sighed and scraped his long fingers through his short cap of silvery hair. He was a singularly pretty boy, but his looks were of no concern to him. In fact, he was completely unaware of the merits of his appearance. He was beyond such shallow things.

His heart was too dark to care about silly things like looks.

But…his heart didn't feel quite so tainted, quite so laden down with the horrific things he'd been through, when that silly girl was near him. She definitely annoyed him, was certainly too enthusiastic in her overtures of friendship…but more and more often, he'd had to catch himself and fold his lips down on themselves before he did something as stupid as smile at her.

And now he was concerned about her welfare-and not without reason. The girl had quite a bad cold; her fever had yet to break, and she'd been dripping snot like some sort of mucous factory for the past three days. Furthermore, every once in a while she would cough in a fragile sort of way, a rattling sound like a crumpled up piece of paper moving around in a set of dry ribs.

And he, who hardly felt any emotion aside from impotent rage these days, was _worried_ about her.

He wasn't the only one. Kaien Cross had been fluttering around in a flamboyant panic, cooking up soup and lentils and preparing ice-pack after ice-pack. Zero, being a halfway decent cook, had helped the man with food. He had not, however, delivered the food personally.

He wasn't quite sure how he would react to the sick girl's grateful looks.

He…

Zero tightened his hands into fists until his blunt nails bit into the tender flesh of his palms.

He wasn't certain about what that sort of grateful, innocent look would do to him.

He was ruined. He didn't deserve to feel like this. He really, really didn't…

He huffed out a breath when the opening door jammed into his spine. He peered up from underneath the curtain of his spiky bangs, twisting a little in place.

It was Yuki. Her cheeks were flushed from her lingering fever; her pretty brown hair was mussed; her wide eyes still had a bit of a fever-sheen to them. But she was up, and she wasn't swaying on her feet.

_Guess Kuran's visit made her feel better_, Zero thought with more than a touch of bitterness.

"Zero…?" The flush in her milky cheeks deepened. "What are you doing…?"

He only looked at her for a protracted moment before climbing to his feet and leaving without a word.

He felt like the world's biggest idiot. His stupid heart had no right to leap at the look she'd just given him.

It meant _nothing_.

Yuki stared after him, hand braced on her door frame. Her chest felt a little tight. The feeling was different from what she felt around Kaname. Not bad. Just…different.

The feeling intensified when she crouched and patted her hand against the spot on the hardwood floor that Zero had occupied.

Warmth leaked into her fever-chilled palm. Body heat. Too much body heat to have been produced by a brief moment of sitting there. Or even a few minutes. Zero must have…been there for quite a while.

"It's still warm…" Yuki murmured wistfully.

_**Present day~**_

"I knew you'd take it if I asked nicely!" Yuki looked much too pleased with herself. Like some kitty that had just consumed a large amount of cream.

Even smug satisfaction looked good on the stupid fourteen-year-old.

"Yeah." Zero gulped down another-not as vile as it looked-spoonful of lentil broth. "Don't be too proud of yourself, Yuki. I just wanted you to shut up."

"Sure." The light in Yuki's eyes didn't dim, and the smile she gave him was…private and sweet and just for him. He had never seen her smile quite like that at any other person. Not even at that jerk Kuran.

The thought burned hot and fierce in his chest. Some part of Yuki belonged solely to him. He was grateful for that much, at least.

"Hey." Yuki turned introspective, settling closer against his side and pulling a pillow around to tuck into her stomach. "Remember that time I was sick and you were sitting outside my door?"

Zero pretended indifference, concentrating on his soup. "Vaguely."

"Why were you there?"

He did his very best not to choke on his mouthful of broth. "I…I dunno. I guess I was kinda…worried or something." He mumbled the last part.

Yuki was radiant. "I knew it! You liked me even then, didn't you? Even though you didn't talk to me as much as now?"

"Don't flatter yourself." Zero forced a derisive snort. Hopefully she would attribute his blush to the fever. "I was just afraid that if you died or something, then the Headmaster would freak and go even more insane than he already is."

"Jerk!" Yuki hit him, hard, with the pillow. But then she snuggled back into him and was out like a light within seconds.

"Stupid," Zero murmured to the softly snoring Yuki. He brushed her slack, pink lips with his in a light, unfelt kiss. "Now you're gonna catch my cold."

**The Warmth That Slipped from Her Palm, And…/End**

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_**A/N**_: Thanks so much for reading! The next two stories are tentatively titled "You and I" and "Don't Hold Your Breath", respectively. I adore you all, lovelies~! Please take the time to press that magical button right there! ;) I truly appreciate it.


	18. You and I

**A/N: **Yes, yes I am writing the obligatory "dance" chapter. Well, prom IS coming up at my school (no, I am not going). So maybe you can blame it on that. In any case, I hope you enjoy this drabble. This is one of the shorter chapters, even for this fic's standards. :/

**Also! RANDOM POLL: **I'm thinking of something that ladydeath07 brought up (you do make me think, don't you, lovely?). She mentioned that she wished Yuki would see what's right in front of her. Well…I AM thinking of making her see it. I dunno, do you think there should be a kiss in the last story of this anthology? I mean, a real kiss in which both are aware and both participate. Do you think I could do it and, more importantly, keep Zero and Yuki in character? If I can, I'll try. Please let me know what you think via reviews or a PM. Thanks! :3

**P.S. **This chapter was inspired by the incomparable Lady Gaga song **"You and I". **If you'd like to listen along as you read, that would be great. :3 You'll totally get the feel of this chapter if you do. It's, in my opinion, a really good song to slow-dance to. I wish someone would make a Zeki AMV on Youtube featuring this song *hint, hint*.

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**You and I **

"Why," Zero Kiryu asked, knotting his fingers into the loop of his stifling crimson tie and tugging it away from his throat, "am I here, again?"

"You know why," Yuki Cross snapped back, batting his hand away and re-straightening the poor abused tie. "Zero, junior high kids hardly _ever_ get dances. Headmaster Cross made a special treat out of it, just for us."

"Just for you, maybe," Zero snapped in turn, shoving _her_ hands away and going back to loosening the darn boa constrictor that had wrapped itself around his poor unsuspecting throat. "If he thought of me, he thought of how uncomfortable this whole situation would make me."

"Zero," Yuki admonished, taking up a familiar stance-little hands on her underdeveloped (sigh) hips, arms defiantly akimbo. "Headmaster only thinks of our happiness. He would never deliberately make you uncomfortable."

Zero rolled his eyes away and up to the lofty ceiling. A decisively skeptical snort was his only reply.

The dance hall with its tiled pink and white marble flooring, soaring white ceiling, and peach-colored draperies, looked like the inside of a champagne bubble. Crystals dripped from the rafters, ice sparkled in the punch bowls, and jewels encrusted the throats of wealthy brats in their early teens.

Yuki wore no ornamentation save for two fat crystal hair clips-a gift from that vampire jerk Kuran-that held the front pieces of her hair up and away from her face, leaving the mahogany wave to cascade down her gently bowed back. With her hair held off her face, Zero could properly make out the delicate curves of her cheekbones. Her eyes, chocolate brown, had a slight tilt, adding to their mysterious beauty.

And, loathe as he was to ever admit it, she _did_ look beautiful. The amber dress she wore, with its puffed sleeves and waist-hugging bodice, did wonders for her complexion and hair color. She wore not makeup on her porcelain skin-and she did not need it. Hers was a quiet, persistent beauty that would only be soiled by beauty-enhancing products.

For his part, Zero felt like a fool in this monkey suit. He hated the starched feel of the too-tight shirt and jacket. At least everything but the tie was in black. He _hated_ white; it only made him look like ghost with his pale skin and paler hair.

Yuki was smiling at him mischievously now.

He fought not to back up a step at that look. "What?" His voice came out defensive and wary.

Her small seashell pink lips curled. "Don't you want to dance?" "With who?" he choked.

"Me, of course." A line formed between her eyebrows as her forehead furrowed.

"I don't dance." He scowled at her in a way that would have sent any other girl fleeing for the hills. Yuki Cross had long ago proved not to be just any other girl.

"You're fifteen, and you've never danced before?"

"We've spent most of the past three and a half years together, Yuki! Do you _ever _remember me dancing? On _any _occasion?"

"Well, I haven't known you your entire life. Surely before you met me…"

"No." Zero's left eye twitched every so slightly. They both knew that he was saying "NO" to both Yuki's assumption and her desire to wring a dance out of him.

"Yes." Yuki's stubbornness, a stubbornness that nearly surpassed Zero's in terms of strength and tirelessness, reared its ugly head. She reached out and clamped her petite hands around his skinny but increasingly wiry arms. She tugged. He tugged back, not using quite all of his stores of strength. They glared, irritation arcing back and forth between them like static electricity.

After a long, silent battle of wills that drew puzzled stares from the kids around them, Zero finally relented and moved (not very reluctantly) into Yuki's arms. She sighed happily and curled one hand on his shoulder, the other resting in his own cupped hand. Tentatively, he rested his hand on her waist. His fingers curled over the little bow on the back of her dress.

"Isn't this nice?" Yuki asked after a few awkward (at least on his part) moments of turning in swaying circles.

He grunted.

"_Something about this place…"_

Yuki hummed along with the song that was cooing out of strategically camouflaged speakers. She couldn't have understood it, as it was in English. Foreign languages were not his foster sibling's forte.

"_Something about lonely nights and my lipstick on your face…"_

Yuki abruptly stood on tiptoe to peck Zero on his cheek. He flushed the color of fresh strawberries and made to tug out of her arms. She only pulled him in tighter.

"_Something about just knowing when it's right…"_

Zero slumped forward a little and rested his pointed chin on the top of Yuki's soft, warm hair. Maybe this dancing thing wasn't so bad after all.

Yeah. Maybe.

"_Something about, baby, you and I." _

**You and I/End**


	19. Don't Hold Your Breath

**A/N: **Thanks so much for reading the last chapter, guys, as well as for your enthusiastic reviews and opinions. I love you so much! I read all the reviews and I'm totally beaming when I do so! You guys are beautiful individuals. Thanks for giving me your opinions on a possible Zeki kiss. As to what I'll do…we'll just have to wait and see.

Anyhow, this chapter features the first major fight between Zero and Yuki in the course of STR. But remember, guys, this is *Night* here. Since when can I resist a happy ending.? **Oh, and I'm not sure how regularly I'll update this month. I have final exams, so…yeah. But I'm not disappearing. I just might update more sporadically until June.**

**P.S**. This chapter was partially inspired by Nicole Scherzinger's song **"Don't Hold Your Breath". **I recommend listening along to it as you read the following. :D I dunno, should I post an anthology play list at the end of the final chapter? In any case…

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**Don't Hold Your Breath**

"Dude." Ren Miyata, Zero's pseudo-friend and one of the few people whom he tolerated, cocked a curious head and squinted at the lanky, silver-haired boy. "I don't understand. Cross is always, like, practically glued to your side. And now she won't even look at you without sticking her tongue out. What the heck did you do?"

Zero's look was stony-but on the inside, he felt bleak and weary, close to bursting into highly unmanly tears. Darn it. He glared at Miyata and swiveled back to brushing down White Lily.

"You look kinda blue, Kiryu," Tachibana observed, keeping a wary distance between himself and the snorting, kicking albino filly. "I mean, your face…" Tachibana yelped and snapped his mouth shut when Zero leveled a piercing glare at him.

Tachibana's disdain for Zero had transmuted itself into a (vaguely sick and misguided, Zero thought) form of hero worship ever since Zero had let loose a stampede of antsy horses on Tachibana and his smug cronies. Apparently a giant hoof print on the butt meant loyalty these days, Zero thought ironically.

"Hmmm." Miyata, a tall, handsome boy with a sturdy build, scratched his dark hair and looked at Zero thoughtfully. "Kiryu…were you bullying Cross or something?"

"Stupid!" Tachibana thunked his own chubby belly for emphasis. "Why would Kiryu bully Cross? I mean, yeah, he's pretty nasty, but Cross is, like, practically Kiryu's _girlfriend_…"

"She is _not_ my girlfriend!" Zero's willowy, pale fingers tightened in White Lily's silvery mane, and the she-horse bucked and whickered irritably. He unclenched his fingers and smoothed them down her long neck soothingly.

Miyata pursed his lips thoughtfully, before grinning in a way that had Zero instantly on alert. "Methinks the lady doth protest too much," Miyata quoted in a falsetto.

"Huh?" Tachibana made a just-sucked-on-a-lemon face. "Kiryu ain't a lady."

"Oh, for the love of…I was quoting _Shakespeare_, you numbskull!"

"Shakespeare?" Tachibana's brow puckered. "You mean that American dude whose play's they made us read in English class?"

"Shakespeare was from England!" Zero snapped. "England is not even _remotely _like America."

Tachibana shrugged. "They're all Westerners. What's the difference?"

Miyata dug the heel of his hand into his forehead. Zero's left eye twitched, as was its habit in these sorts of situations.

Huffing out an aggrieved breath, Zero tossed the rubber curry comb away, patted White Lily one last time, and stomped out of the stall. He had more than half a mind to lock those fools in there with the wild horse.

He somehow managed to reign in his baser impulses.

In any case, it was as he was exiting the stable, Miyata and Tachibana trailing after him like puppies or something, when he saw the _last_ person on earth who he wanted to face right now.

Yuki was striding by with Sayori Wakaba and some other girl with stubby little braids. The moment her deep brown eyes honed in on him, she huffed and shot her rounded chin up in the air.

Zero couldn't quite hold in a weary sigh as his best friend flounced off like a mean-spirited pony.

"Seriously, dude," Miyata drawled, "what the heck did you do to her?"

It hadn't been something he _did_ so much as something he _didn't_ do. That is to say, Yuki had been pestering him (yet again, may he add) about the details of his past. Understandably, Zero had absolutely no wish to divulge to her the (literally) gory details of his brother's betrayal, the slaughter of his parents…a pureblood sinking its long, wet fangs into his neck…

Etc, etc, and freaking _etcetera_.

Suffice to say that Yuki had taken his refusal to divulge his private business a tad bit personally.

Zero only growled low in his throat and rushed off on his long legs before either of his "friends" could follow him.

He crashed straight into Yuki Cross.

_Darn it! This is what I get for walking with my eyes glued to the ground!_

"Watch where you're going!" Yuki snapped at him, dusting off her pale pink t-shirt as if he'd somehow infected. Like being taciturn was catching or something equally ridiculous.

Zero slanted his head forward and narrowed his eyes, looking like a bull about to charge. "_You _watch where _you're_ going, stupid."

"_I'm_ stupid?" Yuki gasped in a scandalized manner. "At least I trust my friends!"

Zero's pale eyes darkened to the exact color of violet thunderheads. "What are you implying?"

"I'm not implying anything! I'm saying that if you would just trust me not to judge you, we wouldn't have to get into fights like this!"

"I'm not in a fight with you! You're the one who flounced off when I didn't feel like airing my dirty laundry!"

"We've been friends for almost four years now! Why can't you just-ugh!" Yuki screeched in frustration.

By this point, their voices had reached decibel levels of epic proportions-quite possibly up to 130. Their respective sets of friends were looking on, goggle-eyed, heads swiveling back and forth, much like spectators at a tennis match.

A limpid sheen of tears began to well up in Yuki's eyes, and Zero thought, _Oh, crap. _

"It's just-" Yuki got out between gasps that were quickly devolving into sobs, "it's just, I thought we were best friends-and I asked you to talk to me honestly-and you never tell me really important stuff like this-and sometimes I think that you hate me-and-and-"

Zero wrapped his wiry arms around her, cutting off her air and stemming the tide of hysterics. He squeezed her so hard, she swore she felt her bones pop before they settled back into place.

"What is this?" Zero snapped over her head at their gawping friends. "This isn't a peep show! Go stare at something else!"

They dispersed; Sayori and Miyata were sending knowing looks over their shoulders as they went.

"I don't hate you," Zero spoke quietly into Yuki's ear, lifting one hand from her tiny waist in order to wipe tear tracks from her cheeks. "I could never hate you, Yuki. Are you stupid or something?"

Yuki burrowed closer to her friend, sniffling into his thin sweater. "Yeah," she croaked. "Yeah, I can be kinda stupid sometimes."

Zero laughed breathlessly before kissing her downy-soft cheek. "Yeah, you are. But, Yuki…I really…can't talk about what happened…before, you know…" Jeez, he was no good at this.

"I understand," Yuki cut off his stammering. "I'm sorry for pushing you. But, Zero-" She pulled back far enough to look up into his eyes; farther up than she'd had to look when they had first hugged one another. "Promise me that you'll tell me one day. Not until you're ready, but…_promise_ me," she ordered him, her high voice suffused with quiet strength.

Zero tipped his forehead onto hers; his silver hair mingled with her brown. "Yeah," he said, squeezing his eyes shut, "yeah, I promise."

_Don't hold your breath, kid. _

**Don't Hold Your Breath/End**

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**A/N: **Mmmm…I didn't particularly like this chapter. I'm not usually satisfied with anything I write, so…and the final weeks of school have been screwing with my head in general. Reviews, anyone?


	20. Bad Romance

**A/N: **Thank you, **Krizteena**, for being the only person besides myself who didn't particularly like chapter 19. I agree that Yuki was vaguely OOC; I'll do my best to avoid that from now on. Your con-crit is greatly appreciated. **By the way**, I loved what you did with the Zero/Yuki eggnog concept! You people! If you haven't read that story - go read it now! It's fabulous and deserves more reviews. Go on! Shoo!

I hope everyone likes this chapter. Please don't expect any updates next week; I've got finals. As always, I've done my best to catch typos, but if you've seen any that I've missed, please feel free to tell me what they are so I can fix them. ^_^ Oh, and in one place I used "farther". Would it have made more sense, grammatically speaking, to use "further"? Please feel free to advise me on that, if you know.

**OH MEIN GOTT! **(excuse the gratuitious German) I just found out that "Stomping the Roses" was selected as deviantart's **zekilove** community's fanfic of the month! I am so flattered and humbled (and suspicious. Seriously, this fic isn't that great...is this a joke? A prank? Is it Loki!). I'm so happy right nowwww. Thanks you guys! *creys* Oh, if you guys haven't checked out that community of amazing Zeki shippers, with their beautiful fanart and fic...do so now! *still creys*

**Disclaimer: **Blah, do not own VK, blah. Do not own "Bad Romance"; though if I'd written such an awesome song, I would have a much more inflated ego.

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**Bad Romance**

"_Ra-ra-ah-ah-ah, roma-roma-ma, ga-ga, ooh-la-la, want your bad romance."_

"What _is_ this crap?" Zero demanded of his foster sister, scowling as he poked his pale head around the corner.

"My new favorite American singer!" was Yuki's chirping reply. The petite brunette was shimmying around the sitting room. She was decked out in a short, pink sequined dress and a brilliant yellow feather boa. Her long, summer-tanned legs were bare up to her mid-thighs.

She looked delectable and ridiculous-mostly delectable. _Way_ too delectable.

"_Love, love, love, I want your love."_

"One of her songs was playing at the dance, remember?"

"Vaguely," Zero allowed. Mostly, he remembered the feel of her slender body in his arms, the tickling brush of her long hair against his skin, the sweet puff of her breath. Yeah, he remembered quite a bit about that night.

Very little of which had to do with the _music_ that had been playing.

Unlike Yuki, Zero had excellent English - as expected from a genius. Or at least, he'd scored genius levels on tests that the Hunter's Association had insisted he take.

As his English rivaled that of a native speaker's, he understood the lyrics. One word in particular stuck out, almost as if the letters had been imprinted on the air in lurid red streaks.

_Revenge_.

Yuki had stopped shimmying around. She tossed one end of the boa over her shoulder, and the feathers scratched her jugular. She studied her abruptly mute best friend.

The fifteen year old was looking more and more adult by the day, she noted; he was leaving the childish looking Yuki in his hormonal dust. He'd recently trimmed his spiky platinum hair, so that his sharp features, finally free of all traces of baby fat, stood out in stark relief. Yuki swore that, in terms of height, he grew at least two millimeters a day. The abrupt growth spurt had left him looking vaguely gangly and awkward - a wolf cub with paws too big for his body.

But there was another change that disturbed Yuki on a fundamental level: day by day, Zero was looking less androgynously pretty, and more devastatingly handsome.

Was that why she'd been hugging him less and less of late? Was _that_ the reason behind his shrinking displays of affection? Did he sense the sudden awkwardness between them?

Yuki felt as if they were slowly but surely drifting apart.

That terrified her.

"_I want your love and I want your revenge…"_

Now Zero was cupping his big hand over the side of his throat, staring dazedly off into the middle distance. Yuki hadn't seen him touch his throat like that since…almost four years ago. Yes, when his wound had been fresh.

"_You and me could write a bad romance…"_

The spiked, silvery streaks of his tattoo peeked out from behind his fingers. Frowning, Yuki sidled closer and brushed her own finger over one of the inked spikes.

"Zero," she said. His skin was smoother than white chocolate, and his pulse fluttered like a bird trapped in a tiny cage of flesh.

He snarled at her and knocked her hand away. Yuki cried out and stumbled - she would have done a spectacular butt-plant, if not for Zero's predator-swift reflexes.

"Oomph," Yuki huffed, steadying herself with her palms on Zero's chest. Zero's decisively _solid_ chest. He was really starting to put on muscle, wasn't he? Still skinny, but…

"_You know that I want you…"_

And, as if she were a puppet with no free will at all, she pressed her hands tighter against him. Her cheeks flamed; _he_ let out the tiniest of gasps.

"_And you know that I need you…"_

She was afraid to look up - her heart had sunk into her belly, stirring up butterflies.

She looked up.

God, he was almost _too_ handsome - so handsome that she felt like she'd be cut from just looking at his sharp cheekbones, like she could weep because of the perfection of his jawbone. In that angular face, his full lips and huge eyes looked out of place. Such prettiness didn't go with those regal looks.

His too-long bangs half veiled those big eyes, so she couldn't be sure of what he was thinking. But his lips were half parted, and there were high spots of color on the translucent skin of his cheekbones.

Warmth was centered on the small of her back, on the side of her mostly bare thigh.

Oh. Those places were where he'd caught and steadied her.

Her pulse rate spiked.

Zero's mouth dropped farther open, and his nostrils flared.

Such full lips…the bottom one in particular was _very_ full, and chiseled as if from pink stone.

But it would be much softer than stone, that lower lip. Much…softer…

"_I want it bad…"_

Zero's tongue darted out, wetting the tiny crevices in his lips.

Like a string was attached to the top of her head, and that string was being tugged on by an invisible entity, she canted forward…and _he_ was leaning closer too, breath coming in short, quiet pants…

And then their noses collided with a dull _clunk._

The teens careened away from each other, clutching their respective snozzes.

"What's the idea?" Zero snapped. He wiped a hand under his nostrils, checking for blood. "You nearly broke my nose!"

Yuki massaged her own tender nose. "_You're _the one who - who -" Darn it, she couldn't find a valid argument. The abrupt collision had shaken her back to her senses, and she was reeling. What the heck had she been doing?

Zero squinted his eyes at her, and his long lashes cast shadows on his cheekbones. His lips formed a thin, irritable line and-

His _lips_.

Oh, _no_. No. Surely _not_.

"_I want your love, I don't wanna be friends…"_

"Whatever." Zero's hackles smoothed down, and he turned on his heel. "I don't have time for your insanity. I'm hungry." The back of his long neck was beet red.

Yuki grabbed for the nearest blunt object - the TV remote - and chucked it at his head. He ducked expertly to the side, tossing sardonic words over his shoulder. "You need to improve your aim."

"Stupid!" Yuki yanked off the boa she'd stolen from the Headmaster's wardrobe and tossed it to the side. She glared at it for a long moment.

Right. Like her recent streak of insanity was the _boa's_ fault.

If only.

Fuming, Yuki plopped down onto the couch and crossed her legs. Her fingers tapped out a staccato rhythm on her thigh.

Zero was right, it turned out. She _was_ an idiot.

Why was she an idiot?

She was a certifiable _imbecile_ because in that brief, close moment, she'd wanted nothing more than to kiss Zero Kiryu's lips.

And the real kicker?

She pressed a hand to her mouth.

_I still want to kiss him._

Yuki Cross was in trouble.

"…_Want your bad romance."_

**Bad Romance/End**

* * *

There you have it, my shippers! Attraction sparks on Yuki's part. No, she isn't going to abruptly fall out of love with Kaname and be all, "Zero's my one true love!" That just wouldn't be in character for her. This attraction, such as it is, will be further explored in the sequel, _Crushing the Petals_. Meanwhile, come June, you'll be able to enjoy the obligatory "Beach Episode". That'll be, heck, the 21st chapter? Whoot!


End file.
